Smoke and Mirrors
by Jeannie-Mckay
Summary: A member of the Atlantis flag ship team has gone missing,the team must try to find him.First ever fanfic. Set in season 1 Please R&R. Very bad summary, please don't judge the story on the bad summary! COMPLETE
1. Disappearance

"I won't give up on one of my team!" the recognisable voice of Major John Sheppard drifted from the briefing room, many heads in the control room turned at the sudden yell.

"Major I'm not saying we should give up on him! I'm only saying that we need to take some teams off the search. We don't have the manpower to search for him, to try to find allies against the wraith and possible trading partners! He's been gone for a month now, and as much as we all miss him we have to start thinking about getting back to normal" came the exasperated reply from Dr Elizabeth Weir, the leader of this expedition.

"You think we can ever get back to normal?" the doors to the briefing room opened and Major Sheppard walked out his face bent low, his brown hair even messier then usual. As he started down the steps he heard a voice

"Major" he turned to see Teyla walking down the steps towards him, her face was pale and tired. None of the team had slept properly since the disappearance of Doctor McKay on what they had though was a friendly meet and greet.

When they had arrived through the gate, they had been greeted by some of the villagers who had been extremely interested in hearing the stories of Atlantis. Rodney had begun almost immediately to ask questions about the villager's technology.

'_Why hadn't he just kept quiet?'_ thought John _' I should have realised that the villagers were up to something1 God Rodney why do you always have to get into trouble! If it's not being infected by a deadly virus it's being held hostage by a lunatic.'_

Teyla saw the look of pain and guilt flash across her friend's face; she took a step towards him.

"Major you should not blame yourself for what happened to Doctor McKay!" she put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

"Yeah, but if I'd…" he began to say before she interrupted him.

"You could not have known what was going to happen on that planet, to Doctor McKay or anyone else." Her voice brought him back to reasoning, her hazel eyes held his searching gaze.

"Sir?" the voice of Lieutenant Ford broke the silent exchange, both turned to look up at the Lieutenant as he started down the steps towards them.

"Sir, Doctor Weir says that we have most of the available teams out there looking for him….' He started to say before the gate suddenly activated, all three started to run up the stairs just as Elizabeth tore from the briefing room into the control room her face filled with hope that this would be Rodney, even though she knew it would be probably impossible as he had been missing for so long she still wanted to hope. She looked around to see John, Teyla and Aiden run into the control room the same look of hope reflected in each of their faces.

As the gate finished the dialling sequence, and the shield had been activated the whole room turned to Peter Grodin waiting for him to say that an IDC had been sent through. When none appeared the whole room turned back to their various jobs all disappointed. Then a crackling came over the radio and a voice buzzed in.

"Doctor…have…information…McKay…lower…shield" the interference was terrible but as soon as the name 'McKay' had been mentioned the whole room had looked up.

'_Strange how McKay's snarkiness has affected everyone's life's. It just wouldn't be the same without McKay's grumbling'_ thought Sheppard as he surveyed the totally silent control room.

"Lower the shield" Elizabeth said, she was full of hope that this information would help lead them to her friend.

When the gate's shield had been deactivated four people stepped through into the gate room. Three of them stared around, all taken aback by the immense beauty of the ancient city, the fourth however did not stare around awestruck he simply watched the stairs and smiled when Elizabeth started to descend towards him.

Elizabeth hitched a smile on her face in order to mask her fear and anticipation of the information that these people brought with them.

"It is good to see your again Doctor Weir" the fourth said still smiling widely at Elizabeth.

"It's nice to see you too Ambassador Filope" Elizabeth replied automatically, she shook hands with the Ambassador briefly before stepping back to introduce him to her flagship team. Filope bowed to all three of the team, he received a curt nod from both Ford and Sheppard and a small smile from Teyla.

"You said you had information." John stated bluntly as he surveyed the Ambassador and his companions coldly. The companions seemed to realise that they were being watched and promptly turned and bowed towards the small assembly of people gathered around them.

"Yes indeed we do. But it might be best if we discuss this new information somewhere more… umm… private" Filope looked around at the crowded control room and at the slightly emptier gate room, and for the first time his smile faltered.


	2. New Enemy

Blue eyes scanned the dark room frantically searching for a way out, but there seemed to be no escape from the darkness. He had been stuck in here for at least four days and he had found no escape route at all.

The thick, black walls that encased him in his tiny prison seemed to be coming closer and closer towards him, they seemed to want to squash him inside his tiny room. He closed his eyes praying that when he opened them the walls would have stopped moving, but when he opened them again they still seemed to press in upon him.

"Wide open fields. Wide open fields!" Rodney repeated closing his eyes once again, and imagining a nice green field in the country. He sighed happily as his imagination took back to a time when there had been no city to save and no enemies to contend with.

"Get him" the cold voice brought him out of this happier memory and back into harsh reality, he opened his eyes blearily and saw two massive figures come towards him. He felt them lift him to his feet and practically drag him out of the room, he tried to slow them down by trying to jerk his arm out of their grips, he received a hard jab in the ribs and he ceased his struggling.

As Rodney came into the corridor outside his small cell he had to close his eyes once again, this time because of the increase of light. He tried to lift a hand to cover his eyes but the two goons were holding his arms to tightly for him to even lift a finger.

He opened his eyes more slowly this time and soon he was able to see where they were going, he tried to show the goons on either side of him that he could now walk unaided but they seemed intent on dragging him unceremoniously forward.

"You know it wouldn't kill you to at least try to be nice to the smartest guy here" he said, trying to get some of his usual snappiness back in order to possibly startle his captures. When no answer came he decided to ask questions instead, these would no doubt get a response.

"Who are you?" he asked, the obvious question to start with but he needed to know who they were and how he had gotten here, cause he didn't remember a thing.

The man in front of him let out a cold laugh, it was a laugh that could chill the blood and still the heart. He did not turn to see McKay's face which was lucky because Rodney's face was suddenly covered by a look of intense fear.

"I believe you already know of us Doctor McKay, but you have not seen us before, and you shall be the first and the last of your people to do so."

Rodney's mouth fell open; he was speechless which had to be a first since coming to this galaxy. His question hadn't been answered in the way he would have preferred but at least it had been answered in some form, this 'riddle' set his mind racing, drawing up possible explanations and conclusions about these people.

'_So we've heard of these people but never met them, well that rules out the Genii and Wraith. I just hope that these people aren't worse then both of them. How can they be worse then the Wraith? No they most probably need help and as I'm the most distinguished scientist they've found they've decided to ask for my help. But I don't remember them asking.'_ His thoughts were interrupted by the man in front of him leading them into a room off the long corridor they had been travelling down. Finally he managed to wrench his arms free of the vice like grips of the goons,

' _If the Major was here he'd be calling them some stupid names like Laurel and Hardy.'_ Rodney smiled as he thought about what John and the rest of his teammates would be doing to try and rescue him.

The leader stopped short inside the new room, looking around at the many people working in the room. The leader's sudden lapse in concentration gave Rodney the chance to take a good look at this room, he stared amazed at the equipment that would put even Atlantis to shame. There were tubes running the length of the room with bubbles slowly rising in them, the 'scientists' were bending over long tables which each held a various assortment of instruments or vials.

Just as Rodney was about to take a step forward the leader seemed to snap back to reality and clicked his fingers imperiously at the two goons who promptly grabbed Rodney's arms again and dragged him after the leader towards a new room.

As Rodney crossed the threshold of this new room he couldn't help but let out a low whistle, the room had tubes running along the walls and ceiling each with a different light, it had several ornate wooden tables in the middle of the room and on each table there was a selection of different crystal vials each containing some of the bubbling concoction from the other room. The lights from the tubes were bouncing off the crystal bottles and sending rainbow patterns across the walls.

As Rodney tried to take in the immense beauty of the room one of the goons pushed him down hard and viciously, his knees hit the floor hard and he gritted his teeth so as not to let out a whimper of pain.

"You should really learn how to treat and invaluable hostage." Rodney muttered angrily as he rubbed one of his knees.

"And you Doctor McKay should really learn how to keep your mouth shut" Rodney looked up startled, he saw a woman walking slowly towards him. She wore what Rodney supposed was the normal uniform for these people, a brown shirt, brown trousers and black boots.

'_Too similar to the Genii for my liking'_ Rodney thought as he watched the woman stop at a table and pick up a small vial and examine it before setting it back down and turning to look at him.

He could see her features now; she had dark brown hair, which fell gracefully onto her shoulders, her dark green eyes stared straight into his blue ones before she started to speak once more.

"You are here to help us Doctor McKay," she said as she turned to sit on one of the many tables in the room.

"Funny. I don't remember agreeing to help you" he tried to sound brave and confident but his voice broke, just like it had with Kolya a couple of months ago. The woman let out a small snigger at his words.

"Very amusing. I see we shall have to teach you some respect." She nodded at one of the men behind Rodney who promptly raised a weapon and hit Rodney in the chest. Rodney crumpled, clutching his chest as a sharp pain coursed through his body, he couldn't see beyond the blinding pain.

"If you continue to show disrespect to me or anyone else I shall be forced to let my guards do far worse to you then just hitting you." She smiled widely at this as though daring him to say something, but he remained quiet nursing his bruised side and his slightly bruised ego.

"That's better" as she said this she picked up one of the small bottles on the table, and held it out for Rodney to see.

"Now. We know that you and your people have inhabited the city of the ancestors. We also know that your people were struck by a plague not long ago." She looked at Rodney expectantly, but he said nothing.

"How did you people survive it?" she asked, looking down at the small vial her fingers hovering over the small cork that held the substance in.

"Well we um…. We're just extremely lucky people" Rodney replied trying to sound jovial as he raised himself to his knees again. He felt a pressure on his shoulder as whatever the goons had used to hit him came to rest on it threateningly.

"Do not play games with my Doctor McKay." The woman stated menacingly, " How did you and your people survive the plague?" the pressure increased on his shoulder but he kept his mouth shut, his mind working furiously.

Suddenly a sharp pain erupted from his right side again, he fell forwards cradling his right side again, he felt the sting in his eyes as they began to fill with tears at the pain.

"Doctor McKay, how did you and your people survive?" the woman repeated patiently, looking at the small vial still clutched in her hand.

"We used an EMP." Rodney said quickly hoping that they would not understand, he gritted his teeth waiting for another blow to his side but when none came he looked around.

"Thank-you Doctor McKay. In the morning you shall help our scientists understand about this EMP." The woman put the vial down and stood up nodding at the two goons who immediately lifted him.

"Why do I have to help them? Who are you?" Rodney cried after her, feeling himself being dragged backwards by the two goons.

"Why, we are the descendants of the creators of the plague that revenged your fair city. You shall help them make a virus that will destroy all people on Atlantis, human or Ancient." With that she left the room, Rodney stared after her in disbelief.

"Bring him" the cold voice of the man who had led them here brought him back to earth, and he was once more dragged unceremoniously back down the corridor and into his small cell.

"You should rest, tomorrow you shall have to work hard." The man said before he slammed the door closed leaving Rodney quite alone.


	3. Dream

How do you guys like the story so far? I think it's time to see what happened on that planet! Hope you guys enjoy!

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_Major John Sheppard and his team stepped through the gate and out onto a beautiful planet, trees littered the horizon, flowers were in bloom all around the gate. The sun beat down onto them all, John pulled out his sunglasses and slipped them over his eyes._

"_So where's our welcome party?" he said jokily, scanning the immediate area around the gate for any possible hostile threats._

"_I think they're just coming" came an unexpected reply from Lieutenant Ford, Sheppard turned to where the Lieutenant was looking and saw a small group of people walking towards them. _

"_Oh." He was momentarily stunned that they were actually receiving a welcome; the Ambassador had said that he would try to send some able villagers but John had not expected them to actually come._

"_Well, everyone be nice. That includes you McKay!" he said quickly as he started down the small slope that the gate was situated, and walked towards the group of villagers._

"_Hey!" McKay cried indignantly "I'm nice to people. At least I don't have a tendency to go all Captain Kirk!" _

_John didn't have time to answer back, the villagers had reached them. They all smiled broadly at the new comers, _

"_Welcome, you must be the Atlanteans. You are most welcome to our humble planet, please come with us." They ushered the team forwards towards the scattered tree line where they had come._

"_You carry great technology!" one of the villagers near McKay said, he looked at the scanner now present in McKay's hand._

"_Oh, yes" McKay muttered distractedly, he was scanning for any energy readings that might indicate useful technology._

"_We have never seen such mechanisms!" the villager spoke again; he stared from the scanner in McKay's hand to the P-90's that the other three were carrying. _

"_Oh really?" the disappointment was evident in McKay's voice; he let the scanner fall to his side. "We were under the impression that you had technology that would be of great use to us." The villager smiled, he exchanged a look with his fellow who was walking near Teyla._

"_You must have spoken to our Ambassador, he often tells other worlds of our great technology, but he lies for we have never had great technology." He was watching McKay interestedly, as if the scientist was a rather interesting animal in a zoo. _

"_So he's lied about you advanced weapons?" the villager was still watching McKay and smirked when this was said._

"_I see you are disappointed. It is a pity so many people only come here because of the advanced weapons we supposedly possess." The villager looked down at the ground for a moment before seemingly recovering himself. _

_McKay looked forward towards John who was being assaulted by questions from his villager; he turned back to the man beside him and smiled faintly._

"_So what technology do you have?" he asked hopefully trying to avoid the villager's searching gaze. _

"_I believe we have some" the villagers all stopped suddenly and raised what looked like Wraith Stunners. _

"_What the hell?" John yelled as he and the other three ran for cover from the hail of blue streaks attempting to hit them._

"_Where did they keep those weapons?" shrieked McKay as he hid behind a nearby tree. There had been no actual place for the villagers to keep those large weapons, so where had they come from?_

_John, Teyla and Ford were all firing at the oncoming villagers; Rodney didn't seem to be able to get to his 9 mill. _

"_Everyone we need to get back to the gate" John cried over the din of bullets and Wraith blasts. If they could go through the trees and then come out the other side then they could have a good chance of getting to the gate and back to Atlantis._

_The others looked at him and nodded, McKay went first dodging behind trees, with stunner blasts missing him by inches. He managed to get half way towards the gate before a blast him; he fell bonelessly to the floor._

"_McKay!" Sheppard yelled and began to run towards his fallen friend, but before he could get to him a stun blast hit him as well and he fell, the last thing he saw was the earth raising up to meet him as he fell into oblivion._

"Major Sheppard please report to the Control room immediately" the voice crackling over the radio brought John out of his dream, he rolled over and grabbed the small radio on his bed.

"I'll be there shortly," he said before turning it off and getting out of his bed, he looked around his quarters glumly. It was still as messy as it had been when he had eventually come in, he had kind of hoped that Atlantis had some kind of built in cleaner to tidy messy rooms, but no such luck.

He headed towards his wardrobe and quickly got changed; he hurried out of his quarters locking the door mentally as he left.

He soon reached the control room and looked around, there was no extra face, no new person there. He sighed he had hoped for a minute that they might have found him, but no such luck.

"Major, we've been waiting for you. I think you should see this" a technician called from one of the many consoles in the room. John walked over to him and looked over his shoulder at the screen that was flashing,

"It started transmitting just now" the technician said smiling.

"What is it?" John asked, it couldn't be what he thought it was could it?

"It's a distress beacon" the technician said smiling even more broadly, he traced the lines with his finger. John let out a sigh of relief, as he stepped away from the console breathing deeply.

"Let Doctor Weir know, and then try and triangulate it's position, we'll gate there as soon as possible and with Doctor Weir's permission of course."

The technician nodded and began to speak into his radio alerting Doctor Weir that they had a breakthrough. John smiled to himself; Rodney would soon be home safe and sound.

* * *

Is it going to end well? Tell me what you think of it so far! It might be a little while untill my next chapter so i thought i'd be nice and put the 3rd one in now. Hope your all enjoying it! And please review, i'd like to know what i'm doing right and what i'm doing wrong! 


	4. Rescue?

"What are you doing?" Rodney looked up from the table he was working on, and stared at the huge guard coming towards him.

"I'm working! Just working!" he said a bit too quickly. The guard came towards him slowly, menacingly.

"Step away from the table Doctor" Rodney did as he was told and sidled away from the table, the guard looked at the table he had been working at, his eyes grew in fascination.

"What is this?" he asked picking up the only object on the small table and trying to examine it.

"Oh that?" Rodney began trying to think of a way to wriggle out of this situation,

"Well that's a generator that will power my demonstration of an EMP." He concluded feeling quite proud that he had come up with an adequate lie. The guard looked at him before turning the device over in his hands.

"BE CAREFUL!" Rodney cried as he lunged forwards ready to catch the device should it fall.

"It does not look like a generator to me" the guard said watching the scientist with an amused expression on his face, he turned back to the table and threw the device back on it carelessly, he then turned and saw the scientist had his arms folded and wore the characteristic McKay look, one of annoyance and scepticism.

"Oh really" Rodney said, regaining some of his sarcasm that he had lost over the past month.

"So you've seen EMP generators before? You've studied them for at least 3 years have you?" he watched the guard closely, when the guard said nothing Rodney raised his eyebrow

"Didn't think so, now are you going to let me work or are you going to stand in my way and prevent me from doing my job?" The guard glared at him and made to raise his weapon, but before he could strike, a small explosion came from a table near the back of the room.

This caught the guard's attention and the hand that had reached for the weapon fell to his side, he turned towards the table and saw a crowd of scientists huddled together, fussing over someone lying on the ground.

"You will stay here, I shall deal with your insolence shortly." The guard told Rodney angrily as he stomped off towards the gaggle of scientists clustered around the table.

"Oh I'm so looking forward to that." Rodney muttered as he turned back to the device, which the guard had carelessly thrown on the table.

"Stupid oaf, doesn't know how to handle valuable equipment," he muttered as he examined the device carefully to make sure that it was still transmitting its signal. This device was the only way his team would have a hope in hell of finding him, he had to make sure that the distress beacon kept up for as long as possible.

The others had to find him! They had to! He didn't think he could stand being in here much longer.

The other scientists kept their distance from him, as if he was a lion looking for his next meal.

Speaking of food he hadn't eaten in quite a while and he was getting kind of hungry, he looked around for someone to ask about the catering in this place but there were no guards.

He blinked a couple of times before turning to the sight of the earlier explosion, all the guards that were supposed to be guarding him were caught up in the struggle.

'_Well that just proves that they are oafs!'_ he thought as he picked up the device again and put it in one of the pockets of the white lab coat he had been given, he started to edge towards the door closest to him.

'_This is too easy'_ he thought as he reached the door without alerting any of the guards. He began to walk out of the room and down the corridor, he turned back to see if his captors had realised that he had slipped out of the room, but they all seemed too intent on attending to the commotion back in the lab.

He broke into a run as he rounded a corner, the corridor ahead was clear too,

'_Ok this is strange, surely they should have realised that I'm gone by now?'_ he thought as he reached the cell he had been kept in for so long. He stopped and stared at it, disgust all across his face.

Before he could do anything else an alarm started to sound, he looked around to see if any guards where in the immediate area.

'_Knew something was going to ruin my day!'_ he thought glumly, he now had to find a way out of here without being caught by the guards, this was going to be tricky.

XXXXXXXXX

"Doctor Weir we are ready for take off." Major Sheppard said from within the cockpit of one of the Puddle Jumpers that Atlantis had at its disposal.

"Glad to hear that Major. Bring him home safely!" Elizabeth said from the safety of the control room, she watched as the Jumper came down from the ceiling and sped off through the open gate and onto another planet.

She sighed as the gate closed behind them, all she wanted was all her people home, was that really too much to ask?

XXXXXXX

The Jumper sped through the gate. Major Sheppard put it into stealth mode as soon as they were clear of it, and he brought up the HUD.

"The transmission appears to be coming from a north easterly direction," Lieutenant Ford told the small group inside the Jumper as they zoomed over the tops of some trees, John nodded as he continued concentrating on flying the Jumper towards the small beeping dot that was hopefully McKay.

They soon reached an area devoid of trees, and landed carefully. This area was close to the complex, so if there was a firefight at least they wouldn't have to run far.

"Ok we're here. Lorne I want you and Phillips to come with us, sorry but I need Briggs and Lucas to stay here with the Jumper." John said as he rose from the pilot's chair, he grabbed his P-90 and headed towards the open door of the Jumper followed closely by Teyla, Ford, Major Lorne and Lieutenant Phillips.

They spread out as they exited the Jumper, all holding their weapons ready to fire on any hostile threats that may emerge.

They walked quickly through the small forest that encircled the Jumper, all waiting for an ambush. Major Sheppard reached the other side of the forest first; he quickly squatted down and waited for the others to catch up, soon the whole group was crouched down waiting for his orders.

"Ok, we've got to be quick about this, we have to get in grab McKay and get out ASAP." They all nodded watching him carefully waiting for his next command.

"Can anyone see a decent entry point?" he asked, he could see no actual place where they could enter the complex.

'_It can't be underground! Please don't let it be underground!'_ he thought as he tried to see as much of the building as possible.

"Sir, can you hear that?" John turned to see Lieutenant Phillips staring at the complex, John listened carefully and sure enough he could hear a faint noise coming from the direction of the complex. It sounded like a siren; a siren that might be used if a prisoner had escaped!

'_He hasn't? We come half way across the galaxy to save his bony ass, and he escapes on his own!'_

"SIR!" John was brought out of his thoughts by the cry of Major Lorne, John stared down at the complex, a figure had suddenly materialised outside of it.

"What the hell?" John said staring as the figure began to sprint towards their hiding place. John grabbed the small spyglass and peered through it towards the sprinting figure.

"It's him!" he cried as he took the spyglass away from his eye, the figure was pelting towards the tree line.

"Sir!" this time it was Ford's voice that brought him back to earth, he looked towards where the young Lieutenant was pointing and saw a group of about five new people running after McKay.

"Ok let's help him out!" he said and he took aim at the approaching figures.

XXXXXXXX

'_What? I'm outside? How did that happen?'_ Rodney thought as he whirled around on the spot, he stopped facing the tree line. _'Well where else is there to go?'_ he ran as fast as his legs would carry him.

'_Faster McKay faster!'_ his legs were protesting against the sudden pace at which they were being forced to move at. He hadn't gone this fast since, well ever.

Suddenly he heard a strange noise from behind him, it sounded like his captors had managed to get out as well.

He tried to push his legs harder, he needed to reach the tree line. He looked at the small forest that stretched ahead of him, it wasn't that far away. If he went a bit faster he could reach it.

Suddenly he heard the sound of gunfire from ahead of him, he heard the sound of a body dropping behind him but he did not turn around.

'_They came! They actually came! I knew that my ingenious idea would work!'_ he thought happily as he sprinted towards his friends.

He was 10 feet away when he felt something hit him in the back, he fell forwards into the hard ground.

He managed to raise his head a few inches off the ground, he could see the Major and Lieutenant Ford now. He could see them getting up and running towards him still firing at the oncoming goons.

'_At least help has come'_ he thought before his head fell down and he slipped into oblivion.


	5. White Hall

Wow i didn't expect it to be this long! Sorry i took so long getting this chapter up, well it wasn't really a long time but hey. Hope you enjoy it, and if you want to review then please do!

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John ran as fast as he could towards the body of his fallen friend, he heard someone else following him and guessed it was Ford.

He kept firing at the men who had followed McKay, there were now only three of the guards left. They ran towards the team, jumping over their fallen comrades, desperate to reach the escaped prisoner.

John finally reached McKay and bent over him, he heard Ford reach them and then the sound of two bodies falling reached his ears.

'_One to go!'_ he thought, he turned to see the only remaining guard racing back towards the place where McKay and the guards had materialised from.

'_Oh no you don't! You don't just shoot one of my team and think you can get away with it!'_ John raised his weapon once more, he took careful aim and pulled the trigger.

The man fell hard into the ground, a small pool of blood began to cover the ground underneath him.

Tearing his eyes away from the motionless guard lying feet from him John looked at the still form of McKay. There was a small dart sticking out of his back, the bit that John could see was silver. The needle was deeply embedded in Rodney's back,

'_Oh crap!'_ John thought as he stared at the dart sticking out of his motionless friend, he turned to Ford who was beside him.

"We need to get him back to Atlantis now! Who knows what that dart contained, Beckett needs to look at him ASAP, get Lorne over here to help me with him." Ford nodded and radioed the other members of the team telling them that they needed to get McKay back to the Jumper.

John looked up towards the tree line and saw Teyla running towards them, her tanned face filled with worry.

"What is that?" she asked pointing at the dart still sticking out of their teammate,

"I have no idea!" John said wondering what he should do; he'd had training for this, oh yes, in the good old days when there weren't this many threats to your people.

Suddenly Major Lorne appeared carrying what seemed to be a hastily made stretcher, he put it down in next to McKay.

"Ok" John stared at the stretcher then at Rodney before looking back at the stretcher again,

"We need to take the dart out." He said finally,

'_Well how hard can that be?'_ he thought as he clasped his hand around the small object.

'_One… two… three' _he pulled the small dart with as much force as he could without damaging McKay more then he had to. The dart didn't budge, the group around the unconscious scientist stared at it.

Suddenly the dart made a whirring sound and three small claw type things emerged from it's sides, and without warning they plunged themselves deep into McKay's back.

'_Oh double crap'_ John thought as he stared in horror at the now almost immovable object half buried in McKay.

"Let's just get him on the stretcher quick!" he said picking up McKay's feet, Major Lorne grabbed McKay's head and the put him on the stretcher on his front.

"Sorry buddy but if we put you on your back the dart might sink deeper" John said quietly to McKay before he picked up one end of the stretcher and Lieutenant Phillips grabbed the other end.

XXXXXXXX

'_What a strange feeling, it's almost like I'm floating in mid-air._

_Is this what death is? Well it's not as bad as I imagined. Well I didn't imagine that I would die on some strange planet, killed by strange virus creating descendents. Ah well you never know, maybe the Major and Ford will get me back to Atlantis quickly. _

_Oh yeah really likely McKay, they probably just left you there!One less arrogant scientist to deal with._

_No! They wouldn't do that! Would they? No! Of course they wouldn't! Atlantis needs me! I keep it running! Well not all by myself but I do most of it._

_I can't believe this I'm having an argument with myself! I have sunk so low, insulting myself instead of anyone else. _

_Well what can you expect I am left all on my own, in here._

_That's because it's my head! Who else is guna be in my head?'_

_Suddenly instead of the gentle darkness that had surrounded him a brilliant, bright white light had engulfed him and everything else around him. Next moment he was standing in a long, white hall._

_The walls, ceiling and floor were immaculate, not a single spot of dust or dirt anywhere. _

_There was a desk at one side of the hall, the seat behind it was empty but there were papers stacked in neat piles on the desk as though someone had been recently to tidy it._

_Rodney stared around him; the walls, ceiling and floor were all comprised of the same type of white tiles, and even though there were no visible lights the room seemed to glow._

"_Hello?" he said, and his voice echoed across the room. He did a small spin on the spot to check that he was completely alone and that no one had sneaked up on him._

_There was no one around; he relaxed for a moment before suddenly realising what this place most likely was,_

"_I'm in Purgatory?" he cried, he spun quickly. He was terrified. This meant that he had actually died. Rodney had never been religious, he'd attended church when he was younger because he had been forced by his family. But now he was in this brilliant white hall waiting for something, he gulped._

"_HELLO!" he cried out once again, wishing that someone would turn up and tell him what he was supposed to do and where he was._

"_Hello Doctor McKay" a voice said from nowhere, Rodney spun on the spot, lost his balance and fell over. _

"_Who are you?" he asked as he struggled to get up from the tiled floor, it had suddenly become quite sticky and hard to rise from it._

"_You know who I am Doctor McKay," the voice said with a small laugh. Rodney registered that the voice was female and it had a distinct similarity to that of…_

"_No!" he said, "How can you be here? You were in the complex!" he started to struggle even more against the strange, possessed tiles._

_The voice laughed even harder at his futile attempts to rise from the floor,_

"_You shall not leave this place Doctor. You shall be entombed here forever I promise you." _

_He stopped struggling in time to see a woman appear out of nowhere in the long hallway. She had dark brown hair and dark green eyes, her plain clothing that she had been wearing in the complex had been replaced with pure white trousers and a pure white t-shirt._

_Rodney just stared at her, horror filling his whole body so that he could not even try to struggle against the floor, which was slowly trying to envelope him. It had covered most of his legs now and was rapidly moving up towards his chest._

"_Guessing I'm notdaed yetthen" he murmured as he stared at the woman. _

"_No you are not." she laughed as she started to walk towards him, her smile widened as she stopped right in front of him._

"_But soon you will wish you were dead Doctor!" _


	6. Strange Happenings

"Doctor McKay you must calm down!" Teyla's gentle voice broke the long silence that had filled the Jumper since they had found Doctor McKay.

John turned in the pilot's seat to where Teyla was sat with Rodney, he was lying on the floor at the rear of the Jumper, but he wasn't lying still as he had done for the last 5 minutes. Now he was thrashing around wildly, his arms flailing in all directions.

"Doctor McKay!" Teyla said once more but louder, but Rodney didn't seem to be able to hear her. He continued to thrash about at the back of the Jumper; it looked like he was having a bad reaction to something.

"Phillips. Take the controls." John commanded as he began to rise from his seat, the young Lieutenant nodded and moved around John to the controls.

Major Lorne was in the seat directly behind the driver's chair, he looked up at John as he went past,

"Do you think he'll be ok?" he asked quietly, so that none of the others in the Jumper could hear him.

"I dunno." John whispered as he continued on towards the back of the Jumper, towards his friend who was still jerking and twitching on the floor.

Teyla looked up at him from her position on the floor next to the scientist, she looked close to tears, which was rare for the tough Athosian. John knelt down next to her hoping that he could help her calm Rodney down.

"Rodney!" he said firmly, he had to get his friend to listen to him. Rodney had to understand that they were his friends.

"Rodney, calm down!" he said as he tried to catch one of Rodney's flailing arms before it knocked someone out.

_'Come on buddy, now's not the time to act like your normal arrogant, stubborn self! You need to stop trying to knock someone out, and start calming down!'_

As John was thinking this the scientist stopped flailing. In fact he stopped moving all together, there was no flailing arms, no jerking muscles.

"Rodney?" John asked looking at the still man, he knew he would receive no answer but he felt like he had to ask.

"Sir? Is everything all right back there? It's all gone quiet back there" John seemed to be reawakened to his surroundings at Major Lorne's voice.

He quickly put his fingers against Rodney's neck to check for a pulse, he let out a low whistle as he found it. It was a bit faster then normal but at least it was there, at least Rodney was still with them.

"Yeah it's fine, just get us through that gate so Beckett can take a look at him!" he yelled towards the front of the Jumper,

'Just a bit longer! Ok Rodney, just a bit longer!'

XXXXXXXXX

_"Rodney!" he could hear John's voice calling to him from the outside world but he could not respond._

_"It must be hard, to hear your friends speaking so close but unable to tell them you're suffering" the woman was watching him from the desk on the side of the hall; she was perched on the end of it smiling slightly._

_"Yeah. How did u guess that?" he said sarcastically as he continued to fight against the floor that had almost reached the middle of his chest._

_The woman laughed, possibly at the remark or him flailing his arms desperately to try and get this strange floor off him._

_"I shall miss your sarcastic humour Doctor" this remark made him look up at her, she had removed herself from the desk and had begun to walk towards him._

_He began to fight harder against the sticky substance that made up the floor, but it was like quicksand, the more you fight the harder it holds on and the faster it drags you down._

_"Well you know me. Always quick with the humour and sarcastic remarks" he said trying to buy some time for him to think of a way out of this sticky situation._

_"Oh please." She muttered before clicking her fingers imperiously and the floor released him slowly, it seemed to be sliding off him reluctantly, as if it wanted to continue it's fun with the scientist._

_Rodney remained still for sometime, he couldn't quite muster the energy to rise from his position on the floor._

_The woman gazed at him before moving off towards the desk, Rodney watched as she picked up some of the papers on there and began to riffle through them. Finally she seemed to tire of this and set them once more upon the desk,_

_"Aren't you going to torture me or anything?" Rodney asked tentatively, he didn't want to give her ideas but he was a bit confused as to how he was going to wish he were dead if she was just going to sit there, unless she meant die of boredom._

_"Would you prefer me to do that Doctor?" she asked looking at him with a cold curiosity._

_Suddenly he was screaming in agony, his whole body was writhing against the white-hot pain that had come out of nowhere, he tried to tell her to stop but he couldn't stop screaming._

_"Did you enjoy that Doctor McKay?" her cold smile was back, she seemed to be enjoying his pain._

_He gasped as he fought to get his breath back, the pain had been so intense and then it had vanished, the only way Rodney could be sure that it had been there was the ache in his muscles as they protested violently against this mistreatment._

_"I am simply waiting for the right moment Doctor McKay," she said smiling "your friends will soon take you back to Atlantis, that is where I shall make my move Doctor," the cold smile widened as she revelled in the idea of this brilliant plan,_

_"Atlantis is where I shall make my move." With that the pain returned with a vengeance, he was writhing again on the floor._

_He was curling into a protective ball his arms around his chest as he started to scream on the floor._

XXXXXXXXX

John was moving back to the front part of the Jumper, when he heard the sudden screaming, he turned to see McKay writhing on the ground.

Everyone in the Jumper turned towards him, even Phillips turned to look before hastily getting his concentration back to flying the Jumper.

Teyla was trying desperately to quell the scientist's yells, she was whispering to him quickly trying to grab his flailing hands.

John ran back towards the pair on the floor,

_'Well at least I'm getting some exercise today'_ he thought glumly as he came to an abrupt halt in front of his two friends, but suddenly the yelling stopped. Rodney stopped writhing on the floor,

_'Ok this is weird!'_

"Phillips lets pick up the pace!" he called to the young Lieutenant, as he watched Rodney curiously.

"Yes sir" came the reply from Phillips, and John felt the Jumper give a small groan as it was pushed harder. It didn't seem to be enjoying the extra exercise.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" asked Teyla, her face filled with concern as she watched her still friend.

"I don't know" John said as he looked from the Athosian to the scientist, there was something strange going on here.

"Beckett will be able to figure it out" he said confidently to try and mask his own doubts and fears, "You'll see…" but before he could say anymore Rodney began to yell and writhe in pain again.

"PHILLIPS! GET TO THE DAMN GATE NOW!" John yelled as he and Teyla tried to catch the scientist's arms once again, but now he was curling into a protective ball.

"Sir we're here" cried Phillips from the cockpit, John could hear the frantic scrabbling for the GDO, and then Major Lorne's voice telling Doctor Weir that they would need a medical team in the gate room immediately.

As they zoomed through the gate on this strange planet and straight into the Atlantis gate room, John began to wonder what life would have been like right now back on earth.

XXXXXXXX

_"We're here" She said as she jumped off the desk and moved to the opposite side of the hall, she began to examine the wall as though trying to see a way out._

_Rodney was gasping again, as he tried to regain all the oxygen he had lost from yelling in pain. Soon he was able to raise his head and look to where she was standing, he saw the maniacal smile appear on her face._

_"Welcome to Atlantis Doctor McKay" she said as she turned towards him, ready to begin the torture she had been patiently waiting for._

_She wanted his friends to watch him suffer, she wanted his friends to watch helpless as he died._

_"Let the fun begin"_

* * *

**OOOOH!** I actually have a vague plan for what's going to happen in the next couple of chapters, lol lets hope they go according to plan. Hope you're all enjoying this story so far! I don't think McKay's having a very good day is he. 

Anyway if you would like to review please do as i love all your feedback, i hope it's helping my writing.


	7. Fighting Back

Thanks to all those who have reviewed my story so far, i love reading your comments and I'm putting these chapters up as quickly as possible. Please continue to review if you want to.

:D

* * *

The Jumper landed in Atlantis swiftly, the doors had barely finished opening before the medical team had boarded and taken over.

The rescue team could do nothing but stand in the front compartment and watch as Beckett and his team checked over Rodney, put him on a gurney and wheeled him away towards the infirmary an IV trailing alongside.

John, Teyla and Ford hurried after the medical team, they wanted to make sure Rodney was all right before they did anything else.

As the entered the infirmary they saw the medical team putting McKay onto a bed and wheeling the stretcher away, Beckett bent low over McKay and checked his breathing.

"Ok let's get him hooked up to a heart monitor," he looked at the few nurses that stood around him and they set to work.

"Major, what the hell happened out there?" he asked as he walked towards them, as he drew nearer to them he saw the exhaustion on each of their faces.

"He appeared out of nowhere, he must have activated some type of transporter." John began; he didn't want to tell the story in its entirety, that could wait for the mission debrief, Beckett just needed to know the facts.

"Then some guards appeared, they were shooting left, right and centre. Suddenly Rodney fell, Ford and I ran towards him and found the dart in his back. When we tried to remove it a self-defence mechanism activated, making it impossible to remove."

Carson nodded at the end of this, he had seen the tops of three spikes embedded in Rodney's back.

"Well, we'll do our best for him now. You all go and get some rest." He turned to walk back to Rodney, before he suddenly remembered who he was talking to,

"And that's not a suggestion Major!"

John smiled as he and his team left the infirmary, he knew that neither Ford nor Teyla really wanted to leave but if they had stayed Beckett would have strapped them down to the hard beds in the infirmary and made sure they slept for 12 hours.

As they were rounding the corner they met Elizabeth walking hurriedly towards them, her face was drawn and she looked worried.

"What happened? Is Rodney ok?" she looked at all three of them in turn, waiting for an explanation. John ran a hand through his already messy hair and sighed,

"Rodney got shot with some type of dart on the planet, we weren't able to remove it on the planet but Beckett's team should be able to do it no problem." She continued to watch them for a minute before nodding, she knew that they needed to sleep but she was just so worried.

"Ok, thank you Major." She moved to one side of the hall to let them all pass, John nodded as he walked past, Teyla gave a tired smile and Ford gave a curt nod before hurrying off to join his team.

XXXXXXXXX

"Dr. Beckett the only way we're going to be able to remove this dart is through surgery." Carson looked down at the short, blonde nurse

"Aye lass I know, but I'd like to run some tests first just to make sure that he won't be in any danger from the surgery." He smiled at the nurse who gave an almost apologetic smile back as she hurried from the bed, which held one of Atlantis's most obnoxious personnel.

Carson looked down at Rodney, it was strange to see him lying still and silent. Normally he would be complaining about anything and everything in the infirmary, but now he was silent and still.

"Don't worry lad, we'll sort you out" he whispered to Rodney before he began to move off towards his office.

XXXXXXXXX

_"I must congratulate you Doctor McKay, I do not believe many people have lasted this long in this sort of situation." Rodney looked up from his position on the cold, hard floor. He had been going through the same ritual for what felt like hours, she would speak for a while then there would be the pain and then she would continue speaking._

_'Women. Can they never stop talking?' his thoughts seemed to echo around the huge hall, the woman looked at him her face a blank mask._

_He waited for the blow of pain that he was sure would follow, but nothing came. No blinding pain, no nothing._

_He opened his eyes tentatively, he could see her still sat on the desk on one side of the hall but she was now staring out into space, she seemed to have forgotten that he was here._

_He began to get to his feet, aware that at any moment she could suddenly force him back down to the floor. But nothing happened, he remained safely on his feet and she seemed none the wiser._

_'Now what to do?' he thought and again it echoed around the room, well ok that's the first problem he had to stop thinking, that is going to be difficult._

_"No!" the sudden screech made Rodney jump; he looked at her and saw that she had stood up but now she had turned her back on him._

_He began to inch silently towards her; he could hear her muttering under her breath, he was soon standing right behind her; this was his chance to beat her, he lunged at her dragging her down to the ground._

XXXXXXXXX

"Unscheduled Off world Activation."

Elizabeth ran from her office into the control room, she hurried to the side of Peter Grodin who was scanning his laptop for an IDC.

"Sorry ma'am there's no IDC" he told her, stating the obvious once again. He looked at the other technicians around him hoping that maybe they might have detected a radio transmission or something.

"What the hell?" One of the technicians cried as the shield began to flicker, Elizabeth and the other staff in the control tower watched as it suddenly died.

"Security teams take your positions." she yelled just as someone ran through the gate, the security teams raised their weapons as one.

"Please don't hurt me!" the man cried as he came to a halt in front of the teams, his eyes widened as he saw the weapons all pointed in his direction.

"Please, I am here with infor…information about Doctor McKay's condition!" Elizabeth looked shocked for a moment, but she soon pulled herself together and left the control room and walked down towards the stranger, nodding at the security teams as she came so that they lowered their weapons.

"Thank-you." He said smiling at Elizabeth who returned the smile only half heartedly

"Who are you?" she asked quickly, she wanted to know who this man was and how he knew McKay.

"Oh, I am Kelus. I was a scientist at the same complex as Doctor McKay. I have escaped to try to help him."

"Help him with what?" Elizabeth asked trying to be careful about how much information they disclosed to this stranger.

"We were informed that Doctor McKay was shot with one of the viral darts, I believed it to be the one that the leader of our people made shortly after his arrival here."

"What virus is that?" Elizabeth was starting to get worried now; Rodney had been shot with a dart that contained a virus, only a few months after they had suffered the loss of many fine expedition members through a terrible virus.

"It is a virus that controls the mind." He noted her blank expression and continued, "Our leader is dying, she wants to make sure that in some sense she can live on. She picked Doctor McKay for this experimentbecause she knew that he would try to escape and get back to his people, she could then take over his body and destroy all those who stay in Atlantis."

Elizabeth was momentarily stunned at this information, some lunatic woman was destroying McKay's mind so that she could use his body to continue to lead her people!

_'Well you're not getting one of my people!'_

* * *

Not long to go now, hope you like this chapter.

See my vague plan is starting to take form, is it a bird? Is it a Plane? hmm we shall have to see. :P


	8. Complicated Circumstances

The steady beeping of the heart monitor next to Rodney's bed had become part of the background noise over the past hour that John had sat next to his friends bed, but the sudden loud alarm and the start of one long, high pitched note made everyone in the infirmary jump.

John was woken from his light doze at the noise, his eyes fell upon Rodney as he realised what had happened. He jumped from his seat and sprang to his friend's side just as one of the nurses and Carson came running towards him.

"Oxygen! And prep the Defibrillator" a nurse came towards John and began to attempt to push him backwards, but John couldn't move his feet, he couldn't take his eyes off Rodney.

"Please sir, move back." She said imploringly, he finally managed to wrench his eyes away from the figure on the bed. He moved backwards slowly, he knew that they had to do their work to save Rodney but his friend was basically dead over on that table!

'_Come on Rodney, don't do this to us!'_

He heard footsteps behind him but he did not turn to look at whoever it was, he just kept staring at the limp figure on the bed.

" John we've managed to get some information from…Oh my god." It was Elizabeth, he knew that he should turn round and face her, tell her what had happened but he just couldn't move.

"Come on Rodney!" Carson was frantically trying to get Rodney to breathe, to get his heart to start to beat again but it wasn't working.

"Doctor Beckett, it's no use." Carson's head flicked up and stared at the young nurse, she flinched away from his scowling gaze. He looked once more at his still friend and bit back a sob, this was it. No more moaning about a minor scrape or cut, no more whining about going on a mission when he should be doing work on the city.

"Time of death, 01:00" his voice caught in the back of his throat as he said this, his eyes began to sting.

John saw Carson heading towards his office, he wanted to follow him. To ask him why he hadn't done more, but he knew too well that Carson would have done everything in his power to save Rodney.

He walked slowly towards Rodney, his feet seemed to drag on the cold panelled floor as he drew nearer to his friend.

He heard Elizabeth walking towards them; he looked at her and saw that she was crying silently. He knew that he should try to comfort her but he just couldn't bear to have another's grief laid across his own, he wasn't ready to be the rock for another just yet.

'_Good bye Rodney'_ he squeezed Rodney's shoulder's slightly, his final good bye to a great man.

Suddenly a brilliant flash of bright light engulfed him, the next thing he knew he was against one of the walls in the infirmary his head was hurting slightly as though he had knocked it moments before.

"What the hell?" John looked up, it couldn't be could it? "Rodney?"

"Yeah? When did I get back to Atlantis?"

John stood shakily to his feet, he looked around the room and saw Elizabeth slumped against another wall; he moved slowly towards her and checked that she was breathing. Then he turned to see Rodney who had moments before been dead, now sitting up and holding the dart that had embedded itself in his back in his shaking hand.

"Ouch!" Rodney's eyes were locked onto the dart now clutched in his hand; it's three spikes were slowly disappearing.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Carson came running in, his eyes wide and frantic as he searched for the culprit of the strange light.

"Rodney? But you're … why aren't you… dead?"

"Nice to see you too Carson, I mean there was no need to go through so much trouble to welcome me back, really!" John smiled at the familiar sarcasm; he saw Carson's eyes take in the rest of the room including Elizabeth lying unconscious on the floor.

Rodney followed Carson's gaze and spotted Elizabeth,

"What's happened?" he asked worry filling his voice,

"No idea, there was some kind of weird light and then you were sitting up." John said shrugging,

'_Hello Major Sheppard.'_ John stared around; he had just heard a voice say his name.

"Major?" Rodney was looking at him curiously

"Did someone say my name?"

"No. Why?"

"No reason." Rodney was still staring at him, it unnerved him slightly and he didn't know why.

"I've got to go, we've got a scientist who said he was a friend of yours. We don't really need his information now do we, I'll just go and show him the door." John turned towards the door and left quickly without a backwards glance, he turned a corner in the corridor and headed towards a transporter.

'_Who are you?'_

'_Why I am a friend of Doctor McKay, I have here to your mind to ask you a favour.'_

'_Oh yeah? What's that then?'_

'_Kill Kelus, he is trying to sabotage Atlantis._

'_What? I can't go around killing people, and how do I know that you can be trusted!'_

'_That is a pity, now I shall be forced to do this deed myself and I was actually hoping that you would consent, but no matter.'_

John was in the transporter and had pressed the panel when he fell to the floor, there was nothing but pain, he was writing in agony until the sweet darkness came and swallowed him up.

XXXXXXXXX

"Good evening Sir." John nodded at one of the marines stationed outside the brig where the strange scientist was now staying.

"Doctor Weir asked me to have another talk with our guest" The marine nodded and moved out of the way for John to pass.

Kelus looked up as the doors opened to reveal John Sheppard, he stood quickly he needed these people to trust him so that he could help Doctor McKay.

"Major Sheppard? I have not had the pleasure of meeting you before but Doctor Weir did say that we would meet soon." He inclined his head in greeting, but he received only a cold glare from the officer.

John waited for the doors to close before he let down the small shield that filled in the gaps between the bars of the scientist's cell, Kelus stared at him wondering what he was doing.

John walked into the cell and stood in front of the scientist, he looked straight into Kelus's eyes before hitting him hard.

Kelus was thrown against one of the sides of his small cell, John then picked him up easily and threw him to the other side.

"Why are you doing this Major?" mumbled Kelus as he tried to pick himself up off the floor, John laughed coldly as he stood in front of the injured man.

"Firstly I am not Major Sheppard, secondly because you left _my_ planet without permission, and thirdly because you were going to try and save Doctor McKay. I can't have that now can I?" He grabbed Kelus and snapped his neck, he let the dead man fall to the floor.

'This is a very good body Major, it is very different from Doctor McKay's. It is sad that you shall never regain control of it, but oh well.'

Major Sheppard walked out of the brig and looked around, the two guards that had been posted outside the door where looking at him.

"Sir? What happened in there? We heard a scuffle but we were unable to get in"

"There was no scuffle, the scientist has been disposed of." John said smiling, the two guards looked at each other before moving in front of their commanding officer.

"Sorry sir, you're going to have to stay here. Doctor Weir informed us that no-one should be interrogation the new guy" John looked at the guard who was speaking to him for a while, before he attacked them.

XXXXXXXXX

"WHOA!" Rodney leapt out of the bed onto the cold panelled floor of the infirmary, he was breathing heavily as he stared around.

"CARSON!" Carson was already running towards him, concern all across his face.

"What's wrong lad?"

"You need to get a medical team down to the brig, the two guards who were looking after that new scientist have been attacked!" Carson stared at him in disbelief, how could Rodney know that?

"Look there's no need to look at me as if I'm crazy!" He raised his eyebrows at Carson's searching gaze "It's nice to know that the best scientist in this place is treated with complete respect and is believed by all his friends."

"Okay, Okay. Julie can you get a team together and go and check the two guards posted outside the brig I have reason to believe they may be injured."

"Sure Doctor" came the reply over Carson's radio, he walked towards the scientist who was still standing on the floor next to his bed.

"Now lad back to bed!"

"What? No! I need to go and find him!"

"Find who?"

"Major Sheppard"

Carson stared at Rodney confused; Rodney saw that Carson needed an explanation so he continued.

"He's the one who attacked the guards!"

"Rodney, are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure!" Rodney was beginning to get angry with Carson, he didn't seem to be able to grasp the fact that Rodney was right (once again).

"Doctor Beckett, the two guards are indeed injured. They appear to have been thrown against one of the walls, they have broken ribs and I think some internal bleeding we are bringing them back for surgery now."

"Okay, thank-you Julie" Carson clicked the radio off and stared at Rodney in disbelieve. How could he have known?

"Back into bed lad, now" Rodney complied and settled back into the hard cot, he wanted to see what the Major was up to.

'She couldn't just leave quietly could she, oh no she had to go and take over the commanding military officer, kill one of the scientists from the complex and now try and get back to her planet. Why is my life always so complicated?'


	9. Mind, Body and Soul

"So what you're saying is that the Major is under the influence of some alien woman who has manifested herself in a virus, and you have some kind of psychic connection to him?"

"Yes, except the connection's to the evil, psychotic woman in his head." Carson's expression said it all,

"Look I know this may sound unbelievable, but it's true! And if we don't hurry, the Major will go through the gate and we won't see him again!" This didn't seem to improve Carson's opinion; Rodney tried to control his annoyance. Why wouldn't any believe him? He had been right about the guards, surely that was enough.

"Carson! Just radio Elizabeth and tell her to get people on the look out for him." "Please" he added as one of Carson's eyebrows started to rise.

Carson took one final look at him before tapping the earpiece of his radio and contacting Elizabeth, Rodney sighed and lent against a nearby wall. The effort of getting himself out of bed to talk to Carson had drained him of what little energy he had managed to regain, that virus had really taken it's toll on him, well that and the being dead part as well.

"Doctor Weir this is Carson."

"_Carson, what's wrong?"_

"Elizabeth, it's Major Sheppard. Rodney believes that he may be under the influence of an alien virus, we need to find him and bring him to the infirmary as soon as possible"

_"Are you sure Carson?"_

Carson looked at Rodney for a moment before deciding,

"Yes."

Rodney smiled slightly at Carson for taking his side, he knew that Elizabeth would radio Sheppard first before sending teams to look for him, he was the ranking military officer after all and he knew a lot about the city as well. Almost as much as Rodney.

"_Okay Carson, we'll send a team out to find him."_ Carson nodded, and turned the earpiece off and looked at Rodney.

"I think it's time you got back into bed lad." Rodney gave Carson a look, which plainly said

'Say that again and I will find an uninhabited planet and leave you there.'

Carson chuckled slightly as he started to manoeuvre Rodney towards the bed.

"If you don't want to be treated like a child stop acting like one" he said as Rodney dug his heels into the floor of the infirmary

"I don't need to go back into that horrible, hard, cold …"

"RODNEY!" Carson yelled as Rodney started to fall the floor, Carson caught him and put him on one of the beds. He flicked on his penlight and lifted Rodney's closed eyelids, Carson checked his eyes and then checked his pulse, everything seemed fine.

_'Don't tell me you've fainted again Rodney!'_

XXXXXXXXX

_He was walking swiftly down a corridor outside one of the science labs; he looked around quickly before he entered. The lab was fairly tidy, the many books that were in there were all on a small table towards one side of the lab and the many strange objects that were being looked at were switched off on various different tables. A door stood ajar opposite him, he walked towards it cautiously dodging around the other objects in the room. He pushed open the door slowly and moved inside, the office was almost the same as the lab._

_There were only a few objects in there but he immediately saw the one that he wanted, it was a laptop. He picked it up carefully trying not to disturb any of the pieces of paper that lay on the slightly crowded desk, when he had lifted it up he saw a small piece of paper stuck on it _

'_Property of R.M'_

_He stared at it for a moment before ripping it off and throwing it on the table, he had to get out of here before someone found him. _

_He headed for the door and slipped out of it quickly and silently, he had almost reached the door to the corridor when three marines walked in._

"_Sorry Sir but we've been told to escort you to the infirmary." One of them said, before they all raised their weapons. He noticed that they carried Wraith Stunners instead of the normal P-90._

"_Why? There's nothing wrong with me Lieutenant" He said slyly hiding the laptop behind his back, a rather foolish place to put it but there wasn't anywhereto put it down at the moment._

"_Doctor Weir has told us to take you to the infirmary" repeated the same marine, he moved towards his commanding officer his stunner held at the ready._

"_Oh, of course" he said, as he walked towards the marine closest to him and attacked. He yanked the stunner out of the marine's hand and shot all three too quickly for any of them to react, he surveyed the three men lying in a heap in the lab before stretching slightly and moving out of the room, carrying the laptop with him._

_How could they have known that it wasn't him? He had left no clues that could be linked to him, unless…_

'_Doctor McKay, it's nice of you to join us.'_

XXXXXXXXX

Rodney woke with a start, this wasn't good she knew that he could see what John was up to. He sat up and found himself in bed in the infirmary, he looked around to make sure Carson wasn't there before he carefully put his feet on the floor and stood up.

Dizziness overwhelmed him and he promptly fell back onto the bed, he closed his eyes and waited for the feeling to pass.

Finally it did and he opened his eyes, and saw a figure standing in the doorway.

"Hello Rodney" Rodney gulped as the familiar voice spoke to him; he knew that he had to get Carson in here.

"Hi, Major. How have things been going?" he asked as loudly as he could, Carson couldn't be that deaf could he?

"There's no need to shout Rodney, I can hear you perfectly well in your normal, annoying voice"

Rodney glared at this remark, he knew that John was trying to bait him but it wasn't going to work! Not this time.

"And your voice is any better?" he asked, okay he couldn't resist having a little dig at him it couldn't hurt could it?

"Yes, mine is." John raised the stunner and fired. Rodney felt it hit him; he felt the crackle of electricity flow over his body as he fell to the floor and passed out.

John walked towards the figure of the scientist and picked him up easily, he looked towards the door to Carson's office just as it opened.

"What the hell?" John put the scientist down on a bed and fired the stunner at the doctor, Beckett hit the floor hard.

'_Me5. Atlantis0'_ he thought as he picked Rodney up again and hurried out of the infirmary towards a safer location.

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What do you guys think of this chapter? I'm love reading all the comments and reviews that you guys are sending. I wonder what's in store for out poor scientist. 


	10. Trick of the Light

Rodney awoke slowly, his head was pounding almost as if he had hit it a couple of dozen times against a brick wall, and by the feel of it the wall had won. He tried to raise a hand to his throbbing head but he couldn't move, he was almost paralyzed.

"Ah you're awake." Rodney tried to turn his head towards the voice but only his eyes could move, he didn't like this feeling. He was helpless, vulnerable to any kind of attack.

"Yes." He tried to say, but the muscles in his mouth just wouldn't move. He had to settle with just staring at the figure that was to the left of him.

"Good. Now Rodney do you remember what happened?" Rodney's eyes widened, and one of his eyebrows rose slightly. How was he supposed to answer when he was paralyzed?

"Oh yeah right. It'll wear off soon. It was just a stunner." Rodney eyes widened still further, the eyebrow sinking back into its original position. He had been stunned? When? How? Where?

"Look Rodney there's something you need to know." The figure came closer and Rodney recognised him as Major Sheppard, inside Rodney let out a sigh of relief. He was safe, John would protect him. "Rodney, Atlantis has been compromised." Rodney's mouth fell open, his eyes widened and he stared horror struck at John.

"See I told you the feeling would come back, anyway. Hostile aliens have infiltrated the base; Weir, Beckett, Ford and Grodin have been compromised. But the rest of Atlantis don't know this, they're all following orders. We've got to get to the gate and get help from earth! We can't let aliens run Atlantis." John looked straight into Rodney's eyes, Rodney held the gaze.

"So, we gotta help them." He slurred, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. There was something fishy going on here.

John smiled, seemingly pleased that Rodney had grasped this concept so quickly.

"Yeah, we've gotta help them. Can you move yet?" Rodney tried to move his hand, he could just about flex his fingers but that was all.

"Ah well worth a try." John turned away from Rodney and headed towards a table, it had a laptop open upon it.

Rodney managed to get his first look at the room, it was large, the floor was made of the same material as all the other floors in Atlantis, the only difference was that it was slightly wet. As Rodney's eyes scanned the room he recognised several smashed cylinders in a row on a table.

"Why we here? This was where the virus escaped," His voice was returning slowly, and he could now move most of his hand.

"Yeah it was. We're here because we don't want the rest of Atlantis knowing where we are. I need you to help me figure this out." John brought the laptop towards Rodney and set it down on his lap. Rodney stared at the flashing dots, and realised almost immediately what it was.

"What do you want me to do with a life signs detector?" he asked, as he watched the many different blinking dots moving about Atlantis.

"I need you to shut down every single life detector in the city." Rodney wrenched his eyes away from the screen to look at John, he had to be bluffing!

"How many time times do I have to tell you, I'm not superman! How am I meant to shut down every single life signs detector in the city? Why do I have to shut down every life signs detector in the city?" John looked at Rodney for a moment, as thought contemplating what to tell him.

"We can't have anyone finding us before we get to the gate." Rodney looked back down at the laptop briefly before glancing up at John; he looked straight into the brown eyes and nodded.

"Can you move much yet?"

"My head, my arm and I'm getting some feeling back into my legs and ex…"

"Don't need to know McKay! Too much information" John moved away from Rodney towards a locked door, Rodney watched him for a moment before turning back to the laptop and beginning his work.

XXXXXXXXX

"Carson?" Elizabeth's tentative voice made him open his eyes, he tried to raise a hand to his face but he couldn't move.

"Carson, you're awake" Elizabeth's face appeared above him, she was smiling at him but he could see the worry cleverly hidden in her eyes.

"Aye" he said quietly, he didn't really remember much about how he had got here. He managed to flex his fingers slightly and knew instantly that he was in one of the beds in the infirmary.

"Do you know what happened Carson?" Carson waited for a while before replying; he wanted to regain a bit more feeling so he could actually talk coherently.

"No, not really. The only thing I remember is talking to you about the Major." Carson turned his head slowly to look at her; he saw Elizabeth was nodding slowly. She was disappointed that he couldn't tell her anything else, but she wasn't going to go blaming him.

"Okay, now you rest! That's an order Carson!" Elizabeth gave him a brief smile before heading out of the infirmary. Carson watched her leave before trying once more to move. This time he managed to move both his arms and most of the upper part of his body.

'_Now I just need my bloody legs to work.'_ He thought as he sat up in the bed, he seemed to be the only patient in the infirmary. That was strange, where was Rodney? He had been here before, hadn't he?

'_Oh crap!'_ He launched himself off the bed, forgot he couldn't move his legs and fell to the floor with a loud BANG. One of the nurses came scuttling over to him and helped him back onto the cot,

"You really shouldn't be moving just yet Doctor Beckett." He nodded, his face going slightly pink with embarrassment. He lay back onto the bed and waited for the nurse to walk away before beginning his attempt to get up again, more slowly this time though.

XXXXXXXXX

"How much longer McKay?" John asked irritably, he was watching the door through which they had come.

"Well if you stopped asking me that every five minutes it would probably be done by now!" Rodney snapped back, he was getting frustrated with the laptop and with the Major.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm rushing you Rodney but we do have the whole of Atlantis looking for us. Should I just go outside and ask them if they can go back to their quarters for half an hour whilst you try to shut down the life signs detector?"

"That would be nice, and whilst you're out can you grab a cup of coffee?"

"If you're not careful McKay I'll spike it with lemon."

"WHAT? You know I'm deathly allergic to citrus! You wouldn't dare." Rodney stared wide-eyed at John, who stared back unblinking. It was at that moment that he remembered what had happened.

"Oh god! Oh god! Oh god!"

"What?"

"Your that woman! You're not John! Atlantis isn't taken over!" Rodney chucked the laptop to the floor and struggled to his feet.

"McKay what are you on about? You may be suffering some effects from that dart that you got shot with." Rodney watched him, his body drawn up against the wall. "McKay, it's me!"

"No! It's not!" John began to smile, not the normal quirky John smile but an evil smile that made his features look distorted. Rodney tried to back away instinctively but he was already against a wall.

"Took you long enough. I was hoping that you might have shut down the detectors before you remembered but never mind." John began to walk towards him, his hands clenching into fists.

" How come I couldn't remember anything? I thought stunners were only meant to stun people, not take away their short term memory."

"Well it also helps if that person hits their head pretty hard when they fall." John was right in front of him now, "But you really shouldn't have told the rest of Atlantis about me. Well technically you shouldn't be alive, but I don't think you'll be around for much longer anyway." With that John grabbed him by the front of the scrubs that he was wearing and threw him over the table that held the smashed cylinders, he felt the glass cut his arm as he went over them. He smashed into the wall and slid to the bottom of it, the wind knocked out of him.

"I was seriously pissed off that you survived, I hadn't thought about the possibility that if you lived you might be able to see what I was doing! But that problem won't exist for much longer now will it?" John came towards him once more and lifted him easily from his crumpled position on the floor.

"Please, no!" he said before he was thrown once again to another wall, he couldn't move. He knew that if that happened again he'd be dead for sure, he closed his eyes and waited for the end, but no hands grabbed the front of his scrubs. He opened his eyes cautiously, John wasn't anywhere near him. He tried to lift his head slightly, and he saw John slumped in a corner of the room his head in his hands.

"Major?" he called softly, he saw John look up his eyes distraught and barely focused,

"McKay? Where am I? What's happened?" Rodney's head was pounding again; he laid it back onto the cold floor before speaking.

"We're still in Atlantis, you've been taken over by an alien consciousness. All you need to do is contact Carson or Elizabeth and tell them that we're in the…" But John had risen from his position on the floor his face livid.

"That will not happen again!" he said, Rodney realised that the woman must be losing control. John must be fighting her,

'_Come on John, you've got to get us out of here!' _

McKay closed his eyes trying to fight the nausea that was threatening; he heard footsteps coming towards him until they stopped right in front of him. He knew that this was the time when he would die; at the hands of someone he had counted a friend.

"Good bye Doctor McK…" Suddenly running footsteps could be heard outside the door, Rodney opened his eyes in time to see John pull him up and hold him in front of him as a shield. The door burst open to reveal Lieutenant Ford, Major Lorne, Lieutenant Phillips and another marine that Rodney didn't know, he saw them hesitate as they saw him being held in front of John.

"Let me pass, or I'll kill him." Rodney felt cold metal being pressed against his neck, where had he got the knife?

'_He's as bad as Teyla for hiding weaponry'_ he thought as he felt the knife dig into his neck. The marines kept their guns pointed at John and McKay, until they saw the small trickle of blood starting to ooze from Rodney's neck. They lowered their weapons reluctantly, and stepped aside, they couldn't let Atlantis' best scientist get killed.

John moved swiftly towards the door, still holding Rodney in front of him he made his way out into the corridor turning so Rodney was still in the way of any bullets.

Rodney sighed, he was never going to escape this! Never!

* * *

Hows it going so far? What's going to happen to Rodney? What's guna happen to John?

Please keep the reviews coming. cya soon for the next instalment


	11. Blood ran cold

Lieutenant Ford watched as his commanding officer dragged the leading scientist around a bend in the corridor, he knew that they weren't just going to let him walk away like that but it still felt strange to be letting him just walk past them without any kind of resistance at all.

"Doctor Weir, this is Lorne. I'm afraid we may have a bit of a problem. Major Sheppard has taken Doctor McKay to, well we don't know where; we had to let them go. He's armed and dangerous, should we follow him ma'am?"

There was a short pause before Elizabeth's answer, as though she was thinking about her response carefully.

"Major Lorne I would like you and your team to follow Major Sheppard, but make sure he doesn't see you. He knows the layout of Atlantis better than anyone, and try make sure he doesn't harm anyone else!"

"Yes Ma'am." Major Lorne turned the earpiece off and turned to his team, they all stared back ready to do whatever he asked them to. His eyes rested on Lieutenant Ford for a moment before he began to speak,

"Okay Doctor Weir wants us to follow the Major but to keep a low profile, we don't want to alert him to our presence. If he finds out we're tracking him he might harm Doctor McKay and as much as I know many people would be happy about that, we can't lose our best scientist in these times." Many of the group smiled at the last sentence, even Ford managed a small grin before his face fell back into the normal military position.

"Okay, you all ready?" when he had received four nods from the surrounding men he continued,

"Well then, lets move out."

XXXXXXXXX

John was staggering slightly, he had never known that a scientist could weigh so much, but it seemed that going off world hadn't really helped Rodney's fitness very much.

He reached a fork in the corridor, which way should he go? He tried to think back to the layout plans he had studied when they had got here; he put McKay down against a wall and closed his eyes.

'_What the hell are you doing? GET OUT OF MY BODY! LEAVE ME ALONE!' _His eyes snapped open, this was not happening!

'_This is my body now! You will be SILENT!'_

'_No.'_

'_What do you mean no?'_

'_I mean no. Haven't you ever heard the word before?'_

'_Of course I have, I am not stupid. Why will you not let me have this body?_

'_Because it's mine! I'm not gunna let some strange, psycho woman waltz around another planet in my body! And these people are my friends, you're attacking people I count as friends!'_

'_So?'_

'_So? So… You're out there attacking the whole of Atlantis. Using Rodney as a shield against my men! McKay fought you, and so will I!'_

XXXXXXXXX

McKay's head was hurting badly again, he didn't want to open his eyes. He wanted to lie here until he drifted off to sleep again, but a loud sound made his eyes spring open. The first thing he sawwas a wall, he stared at it for a moment before realising the strange sounds were coming from the other side of him. He managed to slowly turn himself around so he was facing the opposite way; he let out an involuntary gasp at the sight that met him. John was on the ground writhing and twitching, his face screwed up as though he was in pain.

Rodney crawled along the ground, his own pain almost forgotten as he came to his friend's aid.

"Major?" he called softly when he reached John's side, but all he received for his troubles was a flailing arm connecting with his nose. He fell backwards clutching his nose, and suddenly a sharp pain flared up from his side.

He slowly lay back down on the ground and took deep breaths one hand still clutching his nose, he lay in that position for a couple of moments waiting for the pain to die down before he attempted to sit up again.

When he managed to right him self he looked back at John, he had stopped struggling and the look of pain was gone from his face, he was breathing heavily but he wasn't moving at all.

"Major?" He asked again, he wanted to be careful he didn't know if that woman was going to pounce on him at any moment.

When he received no answer he edged nearer to his friend, as he moved closer to John he saw the radio on John's jacket. He just needed to reach it, then he could call for help. His hand was inches from it before the Major's hand shot up and caught him around the neck, he jumped violently and the burning pain in his sides came back but this time he couldn't lie down.

He was chocking, he couldn't breath, he was dying.

"Let…go" he tried to say but he didn't have enough breath to say it, everything was going dark. His eyes were slowly shutting never to open again, until the pressure around his neck suddenly vanished and he fell to the floor taking in great gulps of air.

"Get up" Rodney didn't think he could move, the pain in his sides seemed to have doubled and he was still gulping air.

"I said, GET UP" This time Rodney complied, he lent against one of the walls as he rose to his feet. John looked at him in disgust,

'_Come on Major. I know you were fighting her! You have to do this, please!'_

"He can't hear you Rodney, I have dealt with him now." Rodney looked straight into the Major's eyes, a look of shock and hatred in his face. How could she! He was going to kill her!

The Major let out a cold laugh at his expression, he moved forwards and grabbed Rodney once more, pushing him in front of him like a shield.

"You are all so full of hatred. I can see why you're all so cranky." John pushed Rodney forward as he said this, and they continued their walk to wherever they were going.

XXXXXXXXX

_'Pain filled his body; he didn't think it would ever end. It consumed him; he was falling down a long unending tunnel of darkness. Suddenly he slammed into a hard floor, and he didn't want to get up. He wanted to lie here forever and ever, but his instincts soon kicked in and he raised his head._

'_What the hell?' he was in a long, white hall his eyes widened as he saw a desk on one side of the hall. _

'_Oh great' his voice echoed around the room as he slowly stood up; when he was upright he took a look at himself. He was wearing his normal uniform; it looked out of place in this brilliantly clean hall._

_As he did a small 360 turn, taking in the immense beauty of the hall, when he stopped his investigation of the room he started to walk towards the desk. It had several different pieces of paper on it, as he drew nearer to it he saw the name on the top piece, 'RODNEY MCKAY' he stared at it. Why was Rodney's name on this piece of paper? He picked up the piece of paper and glanced at the one below it, the name on this piece of paper made him gasp, 'JOHN SHEPPARD' what was his name doing on this piece of paper? He put the piece with McKay's name back down; he stared at it for a moment _

'_What happened to McKay here?' and as though the room was answering his question two figures appeared in the middle of the hall. One of them was lying on the floor; the other was sat on the edge of the desk watching the other figure struggling against the floor, which seemed to be almost eating him up. _

_John stared at the figure on the floor and recognised him, it was McKay. He could tell that the woman was speaking but he couldn't hear a thing, it was all mute. _

'_Where's the volume control?' he thought as he watched the two figures have a completely silent convosation. _

_John walkedtowards McKay, just as the woman got off the desk and walked menacingly towards McKay. Suddenly the woman clicked her fingers and the floor that had been engulfing McKay released him, and the volume came on. The woman moved back to the desk and picked up some invisible documents, she appeared to be searching through them._

_"Aren't you going to torture me or anything?" John stared at McKay in disbelief, why was he asking her to torture him? _

_"Would you prefer me to do that Doctor?" She had looked up at him, and suddenly McKay was screaming and writhing on the floor. John took a step towards his friend, his face a mixture of shock and horror. _

_"Did you enjoy that Doctor McKay?"_

"_I am simply waiting for the right moment Doctor McKay," John stared at the woman and saw a cold smile stretch across her face, his hatred for her increased dramatically. "your friends will soon take you back to Atlantis, that is where I shall make my move Doctor, Atlantis is where I shall make my move." Rodney began to writhe and scream again on the floor, John suddenly launched himself at the woman laughing on the desk, but instead of hitting her he went straight through her and landed on the floor on the other side of the desk. _

_He looked up quickly from his position on the floor but Rodney and the woman had gone, vanished into nothing but Rodney's screams were still echoingfaintly around the hall._

XXXXXXXXX

"Major Lorne, have you found Major Sheppard yet?" Elizabeth's voice was full of worry, not matter how hard she tried to cover up her feelings she couldn't. Two of her friends were wandering around the city; both most probably injured, one taken over by an alien consciousness.

"_We're following a trail at the moment, you might want to tell Doctor Beckett to get a medical team ready. One of them is badly injured!" _With that Lorne's radio crackled and went silent. Elizabeth understood that they had to maintain radio silence when they approached enemies but she just wanted the whole of her expedition to be safe. A wish that was never going to happen.

She looked at the many technicians at work in the control room before heading back to her office; she needed to do some paperwork anyway so she might as well try to do it now.

XXXXXXXXX

John was basically carrying Rodney once again, why the man couldn't walk on his own he didn't know.

"Doctor McKay can you please WALK!"

"What?" came a sleepy answer from the man in front, John realised he shouldn't have thrown Rodney so hard against those walls, Rodney would most probably die before they reached the gate.

"Look McKay, I need you to stay awake!" he said, as he pushed Rodney forwards. "Now we're almost there so just keep on walking, okay?" Rodney nodded his head slightly and began to take small, uneasy steps.

John kept the knife that he was holding close to Rodney's neck, just in case he tried to escape or anyone tried to rescue him. But no one had come near them; no one seemed to be following them. He smiled, it seemed he had gotten the better of them once again.

XXXXXXXXX

_"Doctor Weir, this is Lorne."_

"Yes? What is it?" Elizabeth asked eagerly

_"It seems Major Sheppard is heading you way, you might want to get a security detail up there."_

"Okay Major, thank you for the information." She turned the radio off and walked over the small bridge from her office to the control room, when she got there she contacted one of the security teams to set up a perimeter outside the control room and the entrances to the gate room.

"Bring up the life signs detector." She said to one of the technicians who instantly complied, the screen was brought up and Elizabeth saw two dots moving slowly towards them. The security detail was walking towards the two glowing dots, Elizabeth watched as both groups met. She could hear the gunfire from her position in the control room, why were they firing?

"Lieutenant Johnson, come in." Only static answered her, she glanced back at the screen and saw the three dots which had been the security detail fade away to leave just two dots walking towards the control room.

"Oh god." She said, she turned to the silent control room. Most of the people in here were scientists, people who had never held a gun in their lives. She didn't condone violence, but sometimes it was necessary.

She was just about to get on the radio to the teams outside the gate room when the door to the control room opened, she turned to see Rodney McKay almost fall through the door but he was being held upright by another.

Elizabeth could hardly recognise him, his face was filled with cold fury, he held a knife in one hand and a P-90 in the other. The arm with the knife was holding Rodney up by the throat; Elizabeth could see blood starting to trickle down Rodney's neck as the blade punctured his skin.

"John?" He raised the weapon, pointing it straight at her.

"Let me dial the gate, and no one else will get hurt." Elizabeth stared at him; she knew that this was a genuine threat. If she didn't let him pass he could kill as many people as it took before she complied with his demands.

"Okay." John smiled, and walked towards the DHD, when he reached it he keyed an address and headed towards the stairs still holding Rodney in front of him.

"Security teams to the gate room." She said into the radio as quietly as possible when John was a sufficientdistance away, they had to get here; they had to save the day.

She watched the blue wormhole activate as John walked slowly down the steps, stillbasically holdingRodney up by the throat.

'_Please hurry!'_

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I'm putting these chapters up as quickly as possible, hope this ones ok. Please keep the reviews coming, what's going to happen in the next chapter? Hmmm... i wonder. 


	12. Bright Light

John walked down the steps, careful to keep McKay in front but to not slit his throat too deep. He knew that Elizabeth would send security details in to try and stop him but he was too strong for them now. He wasn't going to let anything stop him now, he was going to go and rule over these people once again.

"John?" He had reached the bottom of the stairs; he ignored the small almost inaudible voice as he dragged his captive towards the wormhole.

"John!"

"What?"

"Why are you doing this?" John actually stopped to glance down at Rodney, why was he asking this? He knew that the only reason he was doing this was to get back to his people. But they aren't really his people are they?

"Shut up" He said finally, he couldn't afford to lose out on this last opportunity. Elizabeth had been sensible and not raised the shield, so that meant that she believed his threat, now he just had to get across that wormhole without getting shot by some security team. Piece of Cake.

"Shut up isn't really a good way to answer a question." He was almost at the gate now; he had to keep his anger down for now.

"Can you move that knife away from my neck please? It's not very comfortable, and this is no way to treat an invaluable scientist." John snapped, he threw Rodney on the floor with great pleasure.

"That better McKay?"

"Not really." McKay whispered, he could barely move from his position on the floor, but he had to keep John occupied.

"You really should learn how to treat hostages, see it wouldn't have hurt to have a nice cup of coffee waiting for me when I woke up. It was the same on that planet, you guys really suck at keeping hostages ali…" Before Rodney could finish his little tirade John kicked him hard in the stomach.

'_Oh crap!'_ thought Rodney as his pain doubled once again, he coughed violently onto the floor when he lifted his head he could see dark red splattered on the floor.

"See dying isn't so good after all is it McKay!" John said almost laughing; he wanted to torment the scientist for eons.

"Sir, drop the weapons and get down on your knees."

John froze, how could he have been so stupid as to forget his objective? It was all McKay's fault him and his stupid antagonism. He lowered the P-90 carefully to the floor before moving to do the same with his knife, but in one swoop he lunged at the nearest marine and sliced at him with the knife. The other marines opened fire, but the bullets seemed to do nothing more than enrage him. Soon two more marines had joined the first and were lying motionless on the floor; the two that were left were backing away nervously.

"Major" John turned to see Major Lorne, Lieutenant Ford, Lieutenant Phillips and Sergeant Kyle walking towards him from the opposite direction.

'Great, 7 on 1! That is so not fair' 

'_Well how about you get out of my body, then we can put this whole ordeal behind us.'_

'_No chance.'_

John whirled around on the spot for a moment before deciding what to do; he lunged for the two remaining marines from the first group, after two swipes with the blade they fell. He then turned his attention to Lorne and the others, his eyes narrowed as he saw their weapons raised, safety off and all pointing directly at his heart.

"You gunna kill me Ford? That isn't gunna look good on your record 'killed ranking military officer'" Ford just stared at him, any emotions well hidden beneath the military mask.

XXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth had watched as John had sliced through the security teams, they had been no trouble what so ever and he was now going to move on to Major Lorne's team.

She had to do something,

'_If I raise the shield he could do something stupid, but if I don't raise it he can run through it at anytime.' _

She looked at all the technicians either seated or stood around her, they were all watching the scene below, even Peter was watching horror struck. She didn't know what to do; she was stuck between two decisions:

1: To make sure that this 'thing' doesn't leave the complex

2: To not hurt John in the process.

One of these was going to work and the other was going to go down the drain. She looked back at the scene on the ground, John was stood watching the four marines who were stood motionless opposite him and in the middle lay McKay. He wasn't moving and Elizabeth was beginning to get worried,

"Peter? Can we signal some more back up for Lorne?" She whispered, Peter turned his head slowly from the scene he looked at her for a moment before nodding; he walked towards a nearby console and began to type something. Elizabeth turned her attention back to the ground as she watched she saw someone move slightly, her eyes focused on the form of McKay,

_'What are you doing Rodney?'_

XXXXXXXXX

John stared at Major Lorne his face hot and sweaty, his strength seemed to be zapping away from him too quickly. His breathing became more rapid as the moments dragged by. He was becoming impatient, why wouldn't they fire already?

"You know the whole point of having a gun is to use it." He said into the silence that had fallen over the gate room

"No its not." It was Ford who spoke this time, his eyes were fixed on Sheppard and John could tell that the Lieutenant was slightly worried about disobeying his leader. "It's for defence purpose only. We don't attack unless provoked **_SIR_**" John stared at the young man, he was really learning. He had come along way from that young, naïve boy who had come to Atlantis to seek adventure.

XXXXXXXXX

Rodney had managed to bring himself into a semi-conscious state whilst Sheppard and the marines had been talking, his eyes opened slowly and he shifted his head ever so slightly to the side.

A gun lay on the ground about 5 inches from his hand, all he had to do was grab it. He heard Ford speak for the first time; he could hear the suppressed fear in the Lieutenant's voice as he addressed his commanding officer.

'_Focus McKay, Focus'_ His mind was foggy, it felt like it was full of marshmallow. He blinked to try and clear the strange spots that had appeared at the corner of his vision, he had to do this.

He managed to move his arm towards the gun; his fingers brushed the cold metal. He closed his eyes as he gradually got a grip on the P-90; John was going to kill him for this.

He gathered all his remaining energy and lifted himself swiftly from the ground, he pulled the P-90 up to his chest flicked off the safety switch and aimed. The shot rang out around the silent room; Rodney stared as he saw John's look of complete confusion before he fell down to the ground.

He knew that every member in the control room and gate room was watching him but he didn't care. He couldn't move for shock, it wasn't until he heard someone start to move towards John that he acted.

He picked himself shakily to his feet; he had to get to John first. He began to walk unsteadily towards his fallen friend, he saw Ford kneel down at John side, his hand outstretched to check for a pulse.

Rodney lunged at Ford pushing his hand out of the way, Ford flew across the floor before he managed to stop himself. McKay reached out a hand towards John; he took a deep breath before he finally touched the skin.

A brilliant flash of white light lit the gate room, when the light had dimmed it revealed all the three marines and McKay lying motionless on the floor.

XXXXXXXXX

"Medical Team to the gate room." Elizabeth shouted as she tore from the control room and began down the steps. She saw Major Lorne, Lieutenant Phillips and SergeantKyle begin to stir from their position on the floor, Ford was also beginning to show signs of life but McKay was lying motionless next to the wall.

The gate shut down suddenly, it was strange to not have the strange blue tint cast over the scene. She walked towards John slowly, terrified of what she might see.

"John?" She asked, knowing that she would receive no response but praying all the same.

"'Lizabeth?" She gasped; she saw his eyes begin to open. She smiled down at him, her hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

"Welcome back." She said,

"Rodney, where is he? We need to help him!" Elizabeth stared at him for a moment before her eyes fell upon the still figure lying a short distance away from them.

"He's …" she didn't know what to say,

"Tell Beckett not to touch him, tell him to get someone else without the ancient gene to pick him up. She'll want to get home as quickly as, OUCH" he stopped speaking abruptly, his hands flew to his lower abdomen. Elizabeth saw that his shirt was bloody, she'd almost forgotten about the shot.

"Bloody hell" The familiar voice of Carson Beckett filled the room, she could hear him and his team filter in. Carson came running straight towards John,

"What happened here son?" he asked as he took in the blood on John's shirt,

"Doesn't matter, Carson don't touch Rodney! Get someone without the ancient gene to do all the work!" Carson stared at him dumbfounded,

"What? Rodney?" he said before his eyes fell upon the figure on the floor, he saw the blood slowly covering the ground beneath and around the scientist. "Oh good lord." He turned and called to one of the team he had brought with him.

"Doctor Hodge, get over here now! I need you to look after Doctor McKay, don't let anyone who has the ancient gene touch him okay?" The other doctor nodded and moved swiftly across the room, Carson watched him go and Elizabeth could tell that he wanted to help.

"Okay lad, lets get some morphine in ya." he said tearing his eyes away from the motionless figure of Rodney.

* * *

See it's all getting revealed now, thanks for the reviews. Not long to go now till it's finished:D 


	13. Torrela

Carson helped load John onto a gurney, he made sure that he was comfortable before nodding towards the nurses who promptly wheeled John away towards the infirmary.

When he had made sure that his charge had been taken away he turned to Elizabeth, a frown crossing his face.

"What happened?" he asked simply,

"Major Sheppard came in holding Rodney in front of him, then he came down to the gate room. He took out the security team I sent in there, then Major Lorne and his team came, they tried to subdue him but Rodney just…he just… shot him. Lieutenant Ford went towards John but Rodney pushed him out of the way, there was a flash of light and he was just lying there." Elizabeth watched the still figure of Rodney as he was wheeled towards the infirmary behind John, when he had disappeared she turned her gaze to Carson. Her eyes were burning with tears, but she couldn't let them fall not yet.

Carson's gaze softened as he saw her eyes fill slowly with tears, he moved closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder,

"Dinnae worry lass, they'll be ok. I promise." Elizabeth smiled at him for a moment before turning and walking away towards the control tower. Carson watched her go; he knew that she had lots of work to do.

"Ah well." He said as he turned towards the rest of the gate room, no one else seemed to be injured.

'_Well that's a first.'_ He thought before he followed John and Rodney's gurneys out of the room and towards the infirmary.

XXXXXXXXX

_' "WHAT? WHY AM I HERE? LET ME GO!" the woman's screams echoed around the long, white hall. Rodney paced around her slowly, it was his turn now to inflict the pain that she had made him endure for so long. He had imprisoned her in a small cage, about the size as the one in the Atlantis brig, this time she wasn't escaping until Carson came up with some way to extract her from his body and his mind._

_'Which he will.' Thought Rodney trying to convince himself that he was going to be ok, that after all this he was going to be able to get back to his lab and bicker with that scientist, Zeleplenka? No, no Zelenka, that was it, yeah to go back and enjoy the life of Atlantis. He realised his mind was wandering and he quickly brought it back to the matter at hand._

_"Why should I let you go? I mean come on…" he paused for a moment his eyes slightly out of focus, "Hey, I don't even know your name!" he said finally, the woman stared at him through the bars of her small prison._

_"Why should I tell you my name, you pathetic human?" she spat, Rodney's eyebrows raised slightly_

_"Because you're in there and I'm out here, I'm in control here. You answer my questions!" She glared at him, but spoke all the same_

_"Very well, my name is Torrela."_

_"Torrela?"_

_"Yes, is there something wrong with the name?"_

_"What? Oh no, it's just. Strange, I'm sure I've heard that name somewhere before." Rodney looked away from her for a moment, where had he heard the name before?_

_"So, Doctor McKay how does it feel to have finally won?" she asked, she could feel the bars loosening slowly his control was failing, this was her chance._

_"You have finally conquered me and my people, you shall surely be rewarded by your people." Rodney looked at her a look of curiosity and suspicion on his face,_

_"Why are you being nice?" he knew it sounded lame but it had to be asked, she was behaving … well for want of a better word nice._

_"I am simply acknowledging my defeat, and to such a worthy opponent." She smiled at him, he backed away slowly._

_"Okay…about an hour ago you were telling me that I was an unworthy body to be in, and now you're admitting defeat. What's happened?" Her smile widened as she managed to move some of the bars in her cage. Rodney seemed oblivious of this fact even though he was staring right at her,_

_"Nothing has happened Doctor McKay, surely you have made many enemies tremble?_

_'Stupid human' she thought as she continued to push the bars further apart, she would escape this time._

_Rodney's cheeks reddened slightly, but he continued to stare at her_

_"Well you know, I wouldn't exactly say tremble, maybe a slight…HEY!" He had finally realised what she was doing, he moved forwards trying to concentrate harder, trying to force those bars to close but it was too late. She lunged from the cage, through the bars and straight at him._

XXXXXXXXX

John woke slowly from his drug-induced sleep; he opened his eyes hesitantly and immediately shut them against the glare from the lights. He could hear the usual sounds of the infirmary around him, footsteps as doctors and visitors came to check on patients, the steady beeping of heart monitors and whispered conversations.

He tried once more to open his eyes, this time he squinted until the light of the infirmary had become bearable and he finally managed to look around.

He lifted his head off the pillows as he saw a familiar figure lying on a bed next to him, Rodney's eyes were closed and a hear monitor was beeping next to him. John managed to force one of his legs to move out from under the covers on his bed and onto the cold floor before he heard footsteps coming towards him.

"What in blazes do you think you're doing lad?" John put his foot back into the bed guiltily, he watched Carson stop at the end of his bed.

"Just…wanted to check on McKay." Carson's frown faded slightly as he also turned his head towards the figure in the bed.

"Ah, he'll be fine lad don't worry. We've got the best of the best working here, we'll figure out how to help him." Carson turned back to John, wearing a slightly fake smile. John nodded letting his head fall back onto the pillows, he felt so tired, as if the simple effort of getting his leg out of bed and onto the cold floor had drained him of all energy. Carson noticed the Major's movements becoming slower,

"You'd better get some sleep Major." John nodded once more; he could hear Carson moving off towards another bed,

_'So goddamned tired! I'll just rest my eyes for a couple of minutes. Only a few minutes'_

Carson smiled as he heard the familiar sound of the Major's rumbling snores, he knew that the Major wanted to check on his teammates but he needed his rest.

As he made his way towards Rodney he began to think about the times when Rodney had come in here complaining about a broken fingernail or a paper cut, and now he was in here completely unconscious and they had no idea how to treat him.

He reached his friend's side, the man's face was paler then normal and Carson noticed sweat trickling down the scientists face. Carson reached out a hand to see if Rodney had a temperature (which could indicate a fever), he was inches away from Rodney's skin before he remembered what the Major had said:

_"Carson don't touch Rodney! Get someone without the ancient gene to do all the work!"_

He withdrew his hand quickly, he didn't know why he couldn't touch Rodney but he trusted the Major.

"Doctor Hodge I need you over here now." He called across the infirmary to his ancientgeneless colleague; Hodge was a tall man with a thick crop of black hair. He walked towards Carson swiftly,

"I think he's getting a fever, I need you to run some tests." Carson said quickly as he moved aside.

XXXXXXXXX

_'A small boy sat in the middle of a field, he was lying in the grass staring up at the cloudless sky. He couldn't have been any older then 8 but his eyes held wisdom beyond his years._

_"Rodney? Rodney?" a female voice was calling from a distant house, the boy Rodney lifted his head but did not stand._

_"Rodney!" the voice was becoming more insistent, the boy groaned as he slowly got to his feet. He had left a small Rodney shaped dent in the grass, he looked at this for a few seconds before he turned and ran towards the voice._

_The wind was whipping against his face, the smell of flowers was making his hay fever worse then ever but he didn't care, it felt great to be outside instead of cooped up inside._

_He climbed over the gate, and continued to run over more fields towards the small house. Soon he had reached the door and looked up into the kind face of his Aunt, she was the only person in his family who treated him like a normal person and not some freak of nature._

_"There you are Rodney, I was getting so worried. You know you shouldn't run off like that, someone could have kidnapped you!" Rodney smiled slightly as she said this; it felt nice to smile properly. "Anyway come in, I've baked some cookies." Rodney's smile widened as he eagerly stepped over the threshold; he wiped his feet on the mat just beyond the door and hurried towards the kitchen._

_"Smells great!" he said happily as he sat down at the wooden table that was situated in the middle of the small, cosy kitchen._

_"Glad you think so Roddy." His aunt's pet name for him was slightly frustrating but if she was going to give him cookies then he supposed he could get used to it._

_Soon a plate of freshly baked cookies was sitting in the middle of the table, he reached out a podgy hand eagerly and grabbed a cookie. They were pleasantly warm; he crammed it unceremoniously into his mouth before picking up another, his aunt's cooking was the best._

_"So Roddy, what have you been up to over the summer?" his aunt asked as she watched him eat the cookies with surprising speed._

_"Nothing much." Rodney managed to say through the mouthful of cookie he had._

_"Aw, that's a pity." Rodney shrugged as he picked up another cookie._

_Suddenly the bang of a car door shattered the cosy, comfortable silence in the kitchen. Rodney's eyes widened with fear as he heard the familiar loud voice of his father, he put the cookie down quickly and got up from his chair. His aunt moved towards the front door just as someone knocked heavily on it, she undid the lock with trembling fingers. The door was pushed open immediately and Rodney's father came storming into the house, his face was deep red and his eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets._

_He soon noticed Rodney who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, he started towards his son_

_"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?" he screamed at the small boy, Rodney stepped backwards into the kitchen._

_"WELL? ANSWER ME BOY!"_

_"Simon, I asked him to come over." Rodney's father turned to stare at his sister-in-law, he seemed stunned that she wanted to see her nephew._

_"Why?" he asked_

_"Because he's my nephew! I'm allowed to see him aren't I?" She replied stubbornly, but her brother-in-law began to walk towards her now and she took a step backwards, nearly knocking over a coat stand that was right behind her._

_"How many times have I told you? You are not to see my SON!"_

_Rodney watched the two adults, he wanted to help his aunt but he couldn't move and even if he could he'd never be able to stop his father._

_"Simon, please think about this."_

_"NO TORRELA! I'M NOT LETTING YOU ANYWHERE NEAR MY SON!" His father screamed at her, Rodney had never heard his aunt's first name before. He had to admit it was quite a strange name._

_"Oh para el motivo Simon de los cielos!" His aunt shouted, his father stared at her in confusion._

_Rodney took a nervous step forward but this movement seemed to reawaken his father to his presence, Simon turned to his son and literally dragged him from the house._

_"NO! NO! NO! LET ME GO" Rodney cried as he thrashed against his father's grip, but his father wouldn't let him go until he was safely in the car._

_"You're never seeing that woman again!" he said bluntly as he reversed the car out of the drive, Rodney stared out of the rear windscreen and saw his aunt's house get smaller and smaller before it disappeared altogether.'_

_' "Interesting past, Doctor" Rodney opened his eyes, his head was throbbing again._

_"You're kidding me!" he groaned as he saw bars rising from the ground all around him._

_"Sorry Doctor McKay, but that idea was brilliant. I decided to use it, it must seem a bit old now." Rodney raised his head to look at Torrela, he wondered if that was her real name, or whether she had just got that name from his memory._

_'Why me?' he thought as he put his head back onto the cool, white floor 'Why is it always me?'_

* * *

Oh para el motivo Simon de los cielos! Oh for heavens sake Simon!

Hope you like this chapter.


	14. Dark House

"Major Sheppard get back into that bloody bed. NOW!" John flinched at the sound of the voice and scuttled sheepishly back towards his bed.

"What do ya think you're up to? I've told you SIX times now to stay in bed!" Carson watched as John got back into his bed, John was unable to meet his furious gaze.

"Well?" he asked keeping his eyes on Sheppard, he saw the man squirm slightly under the penetrating gaze.

"I…I… I just wanted to check on Rodney."

"Look son, we're doing all we can. You're not a medical doctor, you can't help him anymore." Carson's voice softened slightly but his eyes were still burning into John's head.

"I know, but… he's part of my team!" John said, finally looking up at Carson, their eyes met.

"Okay lad. I understand but you need to recuperate too! I don't want to catch you out of bed again! If I do, then they'll be hell to pay!" Carson walked away, back to his office

'_Well then I won't let you catch me'_ thought John as he watched Carson's back, he knew that he should follow Carson's advice but Rodney was a member of his team and no one around here was telling him what was wrong with him!

Suddenly Carson turned around at the door to his office and stared around the room, John quickly turned his head so that he wouldn't know that seconds earlier he had been staring at his back muttering darkly.

Carson shook his head and entered his office, closing the door swiftly behind him. John let out a low sigh, he knew Carson would be watching him closely from now on so there was really no point in trying to get up to see his friend. He let his eyes close; he let his mind drift away, away from the infirmary, away from the threat of the Wraith, to a place that was untroubled by war or battles. He smiled as he drifted off into a peaceful doze.

XXXXXXXXX

_'A soft breeze made the leaves on the trees rustle, it lifted his hair as he walked down the lane. He smiled slightly as the breeze played across his face; it was a change from the chill wind that they had experienced over the last few months._

_The lane dipped slightly and he found himself running, his jacket was flying behind him along with his school bag. Too soon the lane had levelled it's self out and he could see his house; it was an imposing building, built with dark bricks. It had a large oak tree in front of it, which cast a large shadow over the house. The closer Rodney came to the house the worse he felt, it was almost as if some invisible force was sucking all the happiness from this place._

_Soon he arrived at the front door and opened it, as he stepped over the threshold he realised something was wrong. There was a strange feeling about the house, something was definitely wrong._

_He dumped his school bag next to the stairs and opened the nearest door, when it was fully opened it revealed a living room. It was nicely furnished with a soft sofa in one corner, a small, antique television in the other and a various assortment of tables and lamps were crammed in as well. _

_Rodney made his way gingerly into the room, he could see a bottle lying a few feet away from him on the new carpet it's contense seeping through the small rug that it lay on. His eyes widened as he saw a pair of feet poking out behind one of the many tables in the room, as he drew nearer he saw with a gasp of horror who it was._

"_Mum!" he yelled as he sprang to her side, he had no idea what to do, he was helpless. He looked around frantically but there was no one here to help him, he turned back to his mother and saw a small bottle clutched in her hand. He took it and held it up to the light; it had contained sleeping pills that his mother had received from the doctor to help her at night, they were all gone. _

"_Mum? Please wake up!" She didn't stir; he took another look around the room and saw the home phone a few feet away. He jumped up and grabbed it punching in '911', he waited until someone answered and tried to explain what had happened. The woman on the other end was kind Rodney what he was supposed to do; he listened carefully and followed the instructions perfectly. _

_He waited for the ambulance to arrive and watched as they put his still unconscious mother onto a stretcher and wheeled her away; one of the nurses came up to him and asked if he wanted to come with them, he looked up at her for a moment before nodding. She led him towards the ambulance he saw his mother already attached to several different types of monitors, just as he stepped up into the massive car the sound of a car crunching on gravel caught his attention and he turned. His father had returned and was staring at the ambulance as he got out of his car, he caught a brief glimpse of his wife and son before the doors were shut and the car began to drive away.'_

' "_STOP!" McKay yelled from his position on the floor, he couldn't take it anymore. The flashes into his past were becoming harder and harder to bare, they were so real and he could do nothing to stop them._

"_Will you give in Doctor McKay? Will you let me use this body?"_

"_NO! Just stop, please stop!" he had to try to appeal to whatever speck of humanity she had in her, but she just smiled at him, ignoring him completely.'_

XXXXXXXXX

John was woken by the sharp cries coming from the bed opposite him; he sat up just as Carson came running from his office.

"STOP IT! NO MUM! NO!" Carson had reached Rodney's side and was already getting a sedative ready, within seconds he had injected it into the I.V. and Rodney was beginning to calm down. John stared at his friend's pale complexion, he was still muttering something but it was barely audible now.

Carson was also staring down at Rodney worry written all across his face, John was about to get up from his bed when Carson suddenly looked up sharply and glared at him. John took this as the sign to stay in bed, so he complied but he watched Rodney for the next 10 minutes. The only abnormal thing he registered was the occasional twitch of a muscle but that was it, there was no more yelling.

'_What's up Rodney?'_ he thought as he finally looked away from his friend, he looked instead at the blank ceiling for a while before his eyes drifted closed.

'_What's up with all this sleep?'_ he thought before he fell into a deep slumber.

XXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth was beginning to get worried about her two men in the infirmary; she hadn't heard anything from Carson since they had been taken in which was unusual, as he would normally radio her right away.

"Carson." She said into her radio, she needed to know how her people were doing.

"_Yes?"_ came a harassed reply, Elizabeth was startled

"Um… I wanted to know how Rodney and Major Sheppard are."

"_Oh." _Carson sounded surprised and slightly abashed, _"Of course, sorry Elizabeth it's been a bit hectic down here that's all. Both the Major and Rodney are fine lass, Dinnae worry."_ With that the radio clicked off, Elizabeth looked around her office outside she could see the bustling of all the technicians and soldiers as they went about their daily activities.

'_Strange how life carries on no matter what.'_

XXXXXXXXX

"WOAH!" John practically leapt out of bed, he managed to land neatly back on the bed before Carson entered to see what the commotion was all about.

"Major?"

"Sorry Doc, dunno what happen… wait a minute," He concentrated on what he had seen in his dream

"I know how to help McKay." he said quietly, Carson stared at him

"Sorry lad can you repeat that?"

"I said I know how to help McKay." Carson continued to stare bewildered at him, John rolled his eyes and sat up straighter in his bed.

'_This is gunna take a while'_ he thought as he set about telling Carson what he had seen in his dream and what he had to do to help Rodney.

* * *

I promise things will pick up momentum in the next chapter! lol sorry about delays aswell, i'm writing them as fast as i can but writer's block is annoying.

Attacks writer's block with hard wooden sticks

Please leave a review if you want to :D


	15. Control of the mind

"Major, it was a dream. How can you possibly know that, that is the way to help Rodney?" John put his head in his hands; he was sat in bed with Elizabeth and Carson on either side of him. Elizabeth just didn't seem to understand that this could be the only way to save him!

"Look Elizabeth, I just know. I need you to trust my judgement and …me." he said lifting his head up to look straight in her eyes. She watched him for a moment not breaking eye contact with him; finally she nodded and turned to Carson.

"Can he be moved?"

"Doctor Weir you can't be serious! You're going to let him try out this insane plan?" Elizabeth gazed steadily at him, he saw the resolve in her eyes and knew that there was nothing he could do to change her mind. Hesighed looking from John to Rodney, "Elizabeth in normal circumstances i'd so no, they shouldn't be moved but these aren't very normal circumstances. But I'll be keeping a close eye on you Major don't you worry, I'm not having you sneaking away lad!" John grinned innocently at Carson,

'_Ah well, not like I'm gunna go running off in some alien stronghold when I've been shot. Rodney's definitely gunna pay for that…but first of all I have to help him! Don't worry answer man help is coming._'

XXXXXXXXX

Carson worked swiftly, he and the rest of his medical team needed to make sure that McKay and the Major were ready for transport. Like he'd told Elizabeth before, he wouldn't advise doing this when both have been severely wounded, but these weren't normal circumstances and this was the only plan they had.

"Okay, let's go." He said to the crew who would help transport the two injured men to the Jumper bay. The crew nodded and moved towards the two men; soon they had manoeuvred the two gurneys out of the infirmary and down the corridor towards the Hanger bay.

Carson turned around in the empty infirmary looking for anything he may have left behind, he may be letting the Major go ahead with this crazy idea but he sure as hell wasn't going to let them do this without a proper medical doctor standing by and as much as he trusted his excellent team of doctors he would still prefer to be the only one there in case things took a turn for the worse.

He saw a small bag lying on one of the beds nearby, he walked towards it curiously, it didn't look out of the ordinary, just a normal small backpack. He picked it up carefully and walked out of the infirmary and along the corridor.

It didn't take him long to reach the Jumper bay but when he arrived there, both the Major and McKay were already onboard along with Major Lorne (who would be flying the Jumper), Lieutenant Ford, another marine who Carson hadn't met before and two scientists who were going to have to help with the Major's bizarre plan, one of the scientists Carson noticed was Radek Zelenka, the other was a woman with short blonde hair that was tied up in a small bun at the back of her head, she was short and seemed to be reworking something in the back of the Jumper.

Radek was sat in the seat behind the pilot's chair his face slightly pale and his hands clenching the arms of the chair so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

John was sat in the chair opposite Zelenka and it was obvious that he was itching to get up in the front; he kept eyeing the chair next to Lorne waiting to see if anyone was going to sit there.

Rodney was in the back of the Jumper, his gurney was gone and he was laid out on the benches on either side of the ship.

"Atlantis this is Lorne, we're ready to go." The door was closing behind Carson and he quickly sat on the opposite bench from Rodney, Lieutenant Ford sat in the seat in front of the Major, the new marine stood confidently near the injurd scientist and Doctor Beckett, the other scientist who was with them hesitated for a moment before she sat down next to Carson and they began to descend through the floor of the bay and into the gate room.

"_Okay Major, let's hope this works."_

"I'm sure it will ma'am." And with that the Jumper sped through the gate and out onto another planet.

XXXXXXXXX

_' "Something's happening." Rodney looked up at Torrela as she began to stare around her; he saw that she looked both frightened and hopeful. Rodney was still behind bars but she had laid off the memory thing for the moment, he was still trying to recover from the last one._

_"No! They can't have done!" Rodney stared at her bewildered, he had no idea what she was going on about but it sounded as if his team had found a way to get him out of this mess!_

_"What have they done?" he asked as he rose to his feet from his sitting position on the floor, she didn't even spare a glance at him but continued to stare around the room as though she could see the outside world._

_"Are you going to keep me in the loop or am I just a spectator here?" She finally looked round at him exasperated,_

_"It is none of your business Doctor."_

_"Excuse me! This is my body remember and my mind that you're currently invading, I think I have some right to know what's going on out there!"_

_"Go to sleep" she said imperiously clicking her fingers at the same time; Rodney felt this uncontrollable urge to sleep wash over him. His eyelids were closing, and he fell back to the floor._

_Torrela heard the familiar grunting snores coming from behind the bars and smiled to herself, for the moment she could control him but the minute they entered the complex he would regain some of his control. She could not let that happen! She would not let that happen!'_

XXXXXXXXX

The group of 8 walked slowly towards the complex, the only reason they were walking so slowly was because of the annoyingly heavy weight of Doctor McKay, and occasionally because Major Sheppard had to stop. Major Lorne didn't blame his Commanding officer for needing a bit of a rest, he had been shot but he couldn't deny that it was quite annoying to have to stop for three minutes, all of which would be filled with the grumbling of Carson Beckett about how this was a bad idea and that the Major should be back in the infirmary.

"Doctor!" Major Lorne said in a tone that clearly said that all his patience had been exhausted. "I know that you are a valued member of the Atlantis expedition but if you don't keep on stopping Major Sheppard every three minutes I'm afraid I may do something I regret!" This received a scandalized look from Doctor Beckett but he obliged to let the Major walk on without any further argument.

"Thanks" Major Sheppard said when he and Lorne were out of earshot of Beckett,

"No problem" Major Lorne said chuckling.

"How you holding up Ford?" The younger officer was helping to carry Doctor McKay on a stretcher, the whole group could hear him and Doctor Zelenka puffing and panting.

"Just fine sir, absolutely fine." John smiled, that young man had spent too much time around McKay.

They continued walking through a small forest that led to the complex; they were almost there when a shout came from the rear of the group.

"SIR!" John wheeled around in time to see McKay up and out of the stretcher faster then he had ever moved before, soon he had thrown Ford out of the way and was advancing on Doctor Zelenka a manic gleam in his eye.

John tried to run towards the fray but a fierce pain ran through his body from where the bullet had hit him and he was forced to fall to the ground in agony, he could hear three people running towards McKay. Carson it seemed had stayed behind with him to make sure he was okay.

"Hey lad, what's wrong?" John tried to stand but he felt a hand on his shoulder forcing him back down onto his knees, instead he raised his head and looked towards McKay. The scientist was certainly doing well; he had already taken out Ford, Zelenka and the other scientist

_'What's her name? Umm… Katrina? Rita? Oh well doesn't matter at the moment.' _He thought as he watched Major Lorne and Lieutenant Trawling fighting against the Chief Scientist. He could see Ford near a tree starting to move once more, but his eyes were instantly drawn back to the two marines advancing on the manic scientist.

"Carson, I've got to go help!"

"Oh no you don't laddie, you're staying right here. Lorne and the Lieutenant can handle this." Even though Carson sounded firm and confident John knew that deep down he was worried and wanted to help too.

"Doctor McKay, come on do you really want to shoot us?" Major Lorne's voice drifted over towards Carson and John, they both looked up horrified, Carson's grip on his shoulder tightened and there was no way to escape that death grip.

"Doctor we're the ones who have to protect you from the Wraith remember. Without us whose gunna protect you?" Rodney hesitated for a spilt second but that was all that Major Lorne needed to attack, he grabbed the gun from Rodney's grip and Lieutenant Trawling shot Rodney with a stunner. He fell to the floor quickly and silently.

Nobody moved for a moment before Beckett hurried off to have a look at Zelenka, the other scientist and Lieutenant Ford who was clambering to his feet, the two scientists weren't doing as well they were both still lying in heaps on the ground groaning slightly.

John stood up cautiously and only felt a slight twinge of pain this time; he saw Major Lorne come towards him and smiled.

"Well done Major." John said to him grimly,

"Thanks." Both men watched the rest of their group get up and pick up the still form of McKay, Carson took over from Ford and before long Major Lorne had walked towards the still body and taken over from Doctor Zelenka.

Ford walked up to John and fell into step beside him; John looked at the young Lieutenant and saw a nice shiny bruise appearing around his eye.

"Nice one Ford." He said smiling,

"Thanks, but with all due respect sir you aren't exactly looking any better." John turned back to watch the tree line thin out before them, he pretended to look hurt at this remark and he heard Ford snigger slightly next to him,

"But sir, please remind me never to spar against McKay again!" John nodded his mind preoccupied as a large complex came into view ahead.

_'Here we go.'_ He thought as he signalled for the rest of his team to stop and take up their positions.

* * *

Sorry about the time it took to put this chapter up, I'll try to get them up as quick as I can.

Hope you've enjoyed this one, and please continue to review causeI love reading them :D


	16. Power failure

The soldiers watched the complex carefully, the three civilians were talking in whispers obviously discussing some amazing plan to get them in and out of there by dinner time.

"So major any ideas as to how we can get in there? There don't seem to be any possible entry points." Major Lorne had squatted down next to John; the two younger marines were crouching not far away watching the complex intently.

"When McKay got out of there he seemed to materialise out of nowhere, there must be some sort of transporter in there."

"So if he can get out then we must be able to get in." Major Lorne concluded, he let out a small sigh as he realised that this was going to be a scientists task.

"Doctor Z and Doctor…umm…well Doctors I need you both to start working on a way to reverse a transporter beam." The two scientists looked at him, the woman rolled her eyes and muttered something in german. Doctor Zelenka was a little more gracious and smiled at the soldiers before he and the woman put their heads together and began to discuss options.

"This might be a while." John said as he sat down on the soft ground gently, he could still feel the ghost of the pain that had shot through his body about 5 minutes ago.

"How are you feeling lad?" He jumped slightly at Carson's voice, he hadn't realised that the physician was next to him.

"Fine thanks doc." He smiled at Carson who watched him suspiciously for a moment before going off to check on Lieutenant Ford, John watched him until he was out of earshot

"I think he's trying to give me a heart attack." He said quietly to Major Lorne, who smiled vaguely as he turned to face the complex once more pondering how on earth they were meant to get in there.

XXXXXXXXX

Doctor Radek Zelenka was working feverishly with his fellow scientist Doctor Linda Volga, he had heard many scientists and soldiers making snide jokes and remarks about her name and whether it reflected on her personality but he found her to be quite nice. She was a good hard working scientist who was able to ignore Rodney McKay's annoyingly pompous attitude whenever she wanted, it was like a simple on-off switch.

Both scientists were searching through the ancient database that they had on a small flat screen monitor, they had managed to isolate the transporter algerhythms and were now trying to reverse them.

"Proč nebude ono práce? Práce Zpropadeně!" Radek whispered angrily at the small machine, it just didn't seem to want to reverse it's programmed information.

'_If only McKay was here.' _He thought as he prodded a different pattern into the computer, when that didn't work he sighed deeply and put his head back against the tree that was behind him.

"This is useless." he said quietly and he heard Doctor Volga sigh, no matter what code they tried to type in they couldn't get it to work.

"As much as I hate to admit it, we need Doctor McKay." Radek nodded at these words, if anyone could have figured this out by now it would have been Rodney but as he was now knocked out by a Wraith Stunner and as he had not been very agreeable last time he had woken up, that seemed like a lost cause.

"What you mean you can't do it? You're kidding me!" Radek looked up as he heard Major Sheppard walking towards them, the Major's face was a mixture of surprise and horror.

"No we are not kidding you Major, there is no way to fix problem that I can see." Radek felt slightly ashamed to admit this but he couldn't think of any possible solution to this problem,

"So what? You're telling me you want to give up? Give up on McKay? Your friend!" Radek could feel John's anger radiating off him like heat, he couldn't make eye contact with that fury so instead he stared at the ground near by. He wasn't going to give up on his friend but there was no way to reverse the patterns in the transporter.

"I…we are not giving up on him. The transport patterns are impossible to rewrite, unless…" Radek's eyes suddenly lit up, John could almost see the small light bulb blink into life above the scientist's head.

"Doctor Volga I have idea." The female scientist crawled towards him quickly; John sat back on his haunches as the two scientists began their in comprehendible chatter. He was glad that they had an idea because he was getting tired of just sitting around here doing nothing, he slowly got up again and walked back to where Major Lorne and Lieutenant Ford sat on the muddy ground.

"Escaped Carson then?" John asked as he joined the two marines on the ground,

"Thankfully." Ford answered as his eyes quickly did a circle of the area, checking for Carson no doubt.

"They doing any better now?" Major Lorne was pointing at the two scientists who were deep in conversation leaning over the small computer again.

"Hope so. Couldn't understand any of what they were going on about." John sighed as he went back to watching the boring complex. It would have been better if it had, had tiles to count but it didn't so he had to resort to counting trees instead.

_'45, 46, 47, 48. What am I doing? Counting trees? Oh god, a military commander counting trees to escape boredom. What's next?'_

XXXXXXXXX

_' Torrela awoke slowly, she felt as though a thousand tiny needles were poking her. A ripple of electricity seemed to be passing very slowly through her body. She managed to raise her head and saw the body of Doctor McKay lying not far away, the first thing she noticed was the steady rise and fall of his chest._

_She sat up cautiously and shook her head trying to clear it, but this action did nothing but infuriate the small headache she was developing. This couldn't be good; she was a virus not a human! She shouldn't be suffering from headaches and electric shocks. She should not feel pain! _

_A loud moan from the body near her brought her back to reality, she quickly got to her feet and began pacing the large white hall._

_"Keep it down! This migraine could turn into something serious if you're not careful." The familiar tones of Doctor McKay's grumbling resounded around the room, no matter how much she didn't want to admit it she was growing fond of his grumbling, it was becoming the sound of normality for her. But no she could not think like that, he will be discarded as soon as the soldiers enter the complex._

_She looked to one of the walls nearest her and a box appeared on it, it looked like a plasma screen television and soon a moving image appeared upon it. She watched the images carefully before she touched one side of the screen and the image changed, she smiled as three figures came into view all sat on the ground and looking terribly bored._

"_Ah, very good." She murmured under her breath as she touched the screen again and the image zoomed in._

"_What the…?" She turned to see Rodney clambering clumsily to his feet and staring at the screen with wide-eyed fascination, _

"_What's that?" he asked as he walked slowly towards it, Torrela quickly shut the screen down and turned to face Rodney. _

'_Is he getting taller? Or am I shrinking?' she thought as she looked up at the now slightly taller man, he was still staring at the blank stretch of wall behind her. _

"_Look Doctor I think you had better go back over there!" she said threateningly as she pointed towards the opposite wall, he tore his eyes away from theblank,white walland looked down at her._

"_Are you getting shorter?" _

"_No I am not!" she snapped, Rodney looked worried for a moment before a smile formed on his face._

"_Your powers failing!" he cried gleefully, _

"_No it's not!" she said almost desperately,_

"_Yes it is." Rodney stated as he took another step towards her, he looked a lot more threatening now he was taller but she wasn't going to let that stop her. _

"_I still have power Doctor." She hissed, and suddenly the white hall vanished and was replaced by a badly lit room, there was a strange smell about the place. Rodney stared around quickly his eyes growing wider and wider as he took in the horrible wallpaper and the scattered tables, _

"_No, no, no, no, no, no" he muttered as his eyes came to rest on a lone figure sat on the couch. _

_Torrela watched him as they heard the front door open and then close softly, the man on the sofa barely acknowledged that there was someone in his house, the most he did was swivel his eyes towards the door to his left. Torrela's eyes too turned towards the door and she waited to see who was going to enter._

_The door to the living room opened slowly and two people came in, a boy of about 17 with short dark, brown hair, startlingly blue eyes and an air of someone who knew a lot more then the average person. The other figure to walk in was a girl, she was about 14 with dark brown hair like her brother's but hers was longer, her eyes were blue as well but not as bright as the young mans. When they saw the other figure in the room they stopped dead in their tracks, they exchanged glances with each other before the boy moved forward, towards the sofa._

"_Father?" the boy asked as he moved closer towards the old man, his sister watched with fearful eyes. _

"_Dad." The boy said louder this time, but the man seemed deaf to the entire world. _

"_Dad what's wrong?" the girl chimed in this time, she hadn't moved from her position near the door but her voice seemed to be the only thing that brought her father back to planet earth, he turned to look right through his son and straight at his daughter._

"_Jeannie? Come here love." His voice was hoarse as though he hadn't used it in years, and even though his words were kind his tone was commanding. Jeannie's eyes flicked straight to her brother who nodded swiftly, she began to walk carefully towards the old man. Soon she was right next toher father,he patted the seat next to him and she sat down her brother watching her protectively. _

"_I'm sorry for how I acted before Jeannie." Jeannie smiled without thinking, she could hear the sincerity in his voice but she noticed how he had left out Rodney once again. _

"_It's alright dad, but I'm not the one who you should be apologising to." She said pointedly, her father gazed into her eyes for a moment before looking down at the floor. _

"_Dad! You need to apologise to Rodney! He's your son." Jeannie said firmly, but her father leapt from the sofa. _

"_I HAVE NO SON!" he shouted at her, the younger Rodney who was stood near Jeannie simply stared at him. _

"_Dad! You do have a son, he's standing right there in front of you!" Jeannie had sprung to her feet as well, she was trying desperately to calm her father but he threw her off and she fell back onto the sofa. _

_Rodney stepped forwards to help her but his father lifted a walking stick and slapped it on the back of Rodney's outstretched hand. _

"_OUCH" Rodney pulled his hand back rubbing it; he couldn't look at his father any more. It was like looking at a shark getting ready for dinnertime. _

"_Get out" hissed the old man as he raised the walking stick over his head threateningly, the young Rodney stared at the stick for a moment before he took one more step towards the sofa to help his younger sister up. _

_His father placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder and forced her back down onto the couch, with the other hand he struck Rodney with the stick. Both Rodney's let out a yell of pain at the same time, Torrela turned to see the older Rodney yelling in pain. _

_She turned back to watch the younger Rodney fall to the floor still being beaten by his father, she saw the young girl try to stop him but the old man simply hit her with the stick and she fell silently to the floor. Blood was soaking into the rug and spilling towards the tables, Rodney was lying on the floor bleeding badly from his head, his father stepped over the almost lifeless body of his son and walked towards a cabinet set into the wall. He opened the doors and took out a small bottle, Torrela saw him open it and pour what looked like tablets into his hand but suddenly the memory darkened._

_She had to close her eyes at the contrasting brightness of the long white hall, when she opened them again it was to see the older Rodney standing right in front of her. He was now about 3 inches taller then her and he was making use of it, he stared down at her trying to look as intimidating as possible. _

"_Get back Doctor." She said looking up into his bright blue eyes, she noticed that like the young Rodney back in the memory his head too was bleeding. _

"_Not this time." He said quietly, his eyes were burning with a fire that she had never seen before. _

'_This can't be good.' She thought as she saw her own evil smile reflected in his face._

* * *

**Proč nebude ono práce? Práce Zpropadeně! Why won't you work? Work damn it.**

Thanks for all the reviews i've recieved so far, please do continue to review as i love reading them.

What's going to happen to Rodney? Will Sheppard ever throw off Doctor Beckett? (lol)

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, i'll try to get the next one up soon.


	17. Theseus

"Yes!" John turned quickly to see Radek Zelenka almost punch the air in triumph; the female doctor was next to him smiling broadly.

"I'm guessing they've finished it." he stated to the two men who were sat with him, John got up slowly, to prevent any unwanted head spinning, andstarted offin the direction of the two doctors.

"So, you finished it?" He asked casually as he lent against a tree near the two scientists, they both looked up at him before Doctor Zelenka decided to speak.

"Yes, well we hope so. It is very hard to reverse transporter algerhythms, but we believe that we have created sound method. We just need to test it to be sure." John raised an eyebrow at the small scientist, who promptly looked down at the ground.

"Doc, we don't have time to go and find some little white mice so that you and … um… well so that both of you can run some tests. We can't alert these people to our presence, if you think you've done it then we go." He knew that this was going to put a lot of pressure on the two scientists to be right first time, but right now he needed to get into that complex before he exploded with impatience.

"Okay, we'll just run another check to make sure." The female doctor said, as she and Doctor Zelenka turned back to the small computer screen between them and began typing. John sighed and moved back towards his other companions, he saw Lieutenant Ford and Major Lorne look up at him when he neared them and he nodded once.

"It's a go." He told them quietly, Major Lorne nodded and began to radio Lieutenant Trawling who was patrolling the area.

"Um…sir," John turned to face Lieutenant Ford, "You don't have a weapon, don't you think that maybe you should stay out h…" but the Lieutenant's voice faded away as he saw John's expression and soon he moved off to check on the other marine. John turned to watch the complex intently for any sign of movement around it, it'd be just their luck to manage to get the transporters working and then be caught before they managed to get inside.

"We are ready." Doctor Zelenka came swiftly towards them; he had his head down watching the computer screen intently checking for any type of flaw in their equations.

"You sure Doc's?" When he received a nod from both scientists he reached for his radio,

"Okay everybody, on my signal we're going to head for the front of the complex." He turned to look at the three people around him; he saw their anxious expressions and guessed that his face must look the same,

"Okay guys, let's roll."

XXXXXXXXX

' "_Come on guys, you can do it. Just a bit further and I'll be free!" Rodney whispered as he watched a small screen on a wall, it hadn't taken long for him to figure out how to work it and now he could see what his friends were doing outside._

"_It will never work." A small voice stated, "There's no way they could have reversed the transporter algerhythms so quickly, it took my people years to make the transporter go one way. Your people cannot have changed the algerhythms so quickly and with so little equipment." _

"_You don't know my team." Rodney said with a glow of proud as he turned his back on the woman, _

'_Please let this work.' he thought desperately as he eyed the screen nervously, watching the figures moving around him, keeping a look out for any signs of resistance._

"_You do know that if I survive this struggle I shall be destroyed by my kind." Rodney turned slowly, his head was still hurting from the last memory she had forced him to endure and he could still feel warm blood trickling down his neck. _

"_So?" He said bluntly, he didn't really care if she was destroyed by her own kind. But if he had a say in it he'd be the one to kill her! Even if he didn't really believe in violence, she was the exception to the rule._

"_So? Do you really think that you can live with that Doctor? Live with the fact that thanks to you I will have been destroyed! Live with the fact that a decent human being was murdered because of you."_

"_Decent?" he said laughing, how could she even think that she was decent? "How can you be decent? How can you... hang on! How can you be a human being? You're a virus, not a human." _

"_Ah there you are mistaken Doctor, I am not a virus, even though I have been known to act like it. I am in fact a human,and I do not reside in your brain. If I did I think I would start to redecorate." Rodney glared at her, but his mind was racing. How come she wasn't a virus? What was she then? How could she be in his brain and not be a virus? But he'd met her in the complex hadn't he? So surely she was human? These questions kept rolling around and around inhis mind until his headache increased with frustration. _

"_Don't worry Doctor, it annoys everyone when they find out they've been wrong all along." Torrela said sweetly, Rodney turned and began to walk menacingly towards her_

'_That's it! I've had it!' he thought as he reached her, but suddenly the screen on the wall beeped loudly and he turned._

"_What now?" he said absently as hehurried offtowards the screen to consult it. It still showed the same landscape, trees everywhere 'which no doubt the Major was counting at some point in time' and the imposing complex, which was drawing nearer and nearer. Then he noticed something moving to the right of the screen, it was a figure hidden in the trees._

"_Oh great." he muttered, how was he supposed to warn the others? Thanks to some gung-ho Lieutenant he was now incapacitated. _

"_Come on you bunch of slack jawed idiots." he muttered, he didn't mean to be rude; well actually he did, but they needed to wake up and smell the strange man hiding in the bushes!_

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"Come on you bunch of slack jawed idiots." All seven of the group turned to stare at the unconscious body of Doctor McKay as it began to speak, even Ford and Trawling who were holding him up turned to look at him.

"McKay, that's not very nice. We're here to help you and all you can do is…" but John stopped abruptly, he had seen something in the trees to his right. He motioned to the others and they all stopped, the two scientists and Doctor Beckett were looking around curiously and the soldiers were lifting their weapons.

Suddenly the figure burst from the trees into the clearing and all three marines raised their weapons ready to fire, Ford and Lieutenant Trawling almost dropped McKay as they brought their weapons up to their shoulders.

"Please don't shoot! I am here to help!" John looked at the new person suspiciously; he was a young man of about 23 with dark brown hair and a grubby uniform.

"Who are you?" he asked as politely as he could, he wasn't about to trust anybody on this planet but he thought it was only fair to be civil.

"My name is Theseus, I am a friend of Kelus. He told me that if you should return then I was to help you. Please I am only here to offer assistance. Please lower your weapons." Theseus was smiling in a friendly but frightened way and John couldn't help but begin to trust him,

'Maybe this will work after all.' he thought as he eyed Theseus carefully before nodding to the rest of his men, they all lowered their weapons but continued to glare at the new arrival.

* * *

Hello, sorry about the delay in chapter posting. Hope this chapter's okay. I got the idea for Torrela's bit from a Doctor Who episode, the 9th doctor's adventures, lol you can probably see which bits I'm on about.

Also Theseus was a Greek Hero, son of Princess Aethra and grandson to the king of Troezen. He was raised by his grandfather and his mother. He first proved himself to be a hero by lifting a massive boulder and finding an item that had been placed beneath it by his father. (How exciting :P) lol. There's a little history lesson in Greek Mythology. :D

Please do review if you want to, i am enjoying reading them and taking on board any critisms you may have. Thanks.


	18. Tick Tock

Finally the group of 8 beamed into the complex, the three soldiers lifted their weapons once more and flicked the small lights on. The corridor they had beamed into was pitch black, apart from the small beams of light now coming from the P-90s that were darting about the place searching.

"Okay, Theseus which way?" Major Sheppard whispered from the front of the group, Theseus moved forwards slightly and gestured towards down the corridor, the whole group seemed to hesitate for a moment before they moved off towards whatever awaited them at the end of the corridor.

The group moved together as one down the stretch of cold, black stone the small beads of light were scanning all the different walls, criss-crossing, John couldn't help but watch the patterns that they made on the dark walls, several times he had to tear his eyes away from the walls when he realised he had stopped walking.

"Hurry, we must hurry!" Theseus kept reminding him every time he stopped,

'_Well it's not my fault if I'm suffering from a bullet wound to the stomach!'_ he thought angrily when Theseus had said this for the fourth time. He could feel Carson standing just behind him and tried to contain any requests from his brain to kill Theseus, on the grounds of being as annoying as McKay!

"Here." Theseus whispered as he came to a halt outside an ominous looking door, it was black like the walls and floor but it had strange symbols on it, which looked suspiciously like Ancient. John leaned closer to the door to see if he could read any of it, he felt a soft push against his back and practically fell against the door. Suddenly the corridor filled with a brilliant white light, the whole group shielded their eyes from the glare, slowly the light faded but the symbols that were etched in the door were glowing faintly, lighting up long forgotten words.

"What the hell?" came a whispered exclamation from one of the group, John didn't know who and didn't care he was staring transfixed at the symbols now coming to life all across the walls.

"Sir!" Lieutenant Ford was moving towards one of the walls, he was staring at one of the symbols etched into the walls. John walked slowly towards him, trying to take in everything around him at once.

"What is it Lieutenant?" He asked as he drew level with the young soldier, he kept his eyes travelling around the walls instead of focusing on one word in particular.

"Well sir, it's got McKay's name on here." Ford said in a matter of fact tone of voice, as if he was stating thatthe end of Friday was the beginning of the weekend. John wrenched his gaze from the opposite wall and stared at the spot that Ford was pointing to, he stared at the word engraved on the ancient stone _'Rodney McKay'_. John rounded on Theseus his hand itching to grab the man's throat, but he steadied himself and instead decided to try and kill him with a look.

"What the hell is my friend's name doing up there?" he asked, trying to keep his voice level, he had no idea why he had the urge to throttle this man where he stood but it was bloody hard to resist.

"I do not know," Theseus stuttered as his eyes left the wall to look straight into John's face, he must have seen the red flame in John's eyes because he instantly began to stammer "honestly… Major… I wouldn't know…how should I know…I'm just a normal person who works here. Please don't hurt me." This last bit came out as a whimper, because John had taken a menacing step towards him.

"Sir." He felt a hand on his shoulder and stopped in his tracks, Theseus was cowering in a corner.

John nodded to Major Lorne who immediately walked towards Theseus holding out a hand, he took it and got to his feet, John still glaring at him.

"Shall we carry on then?" Major Lorne whispered, and the group began to move off again, but this time they kept glancing nervously at John as if he was going to suddenly turn into a Wraith and attack them.

'_Well at least then I'd be able to get rid of this Theseus. All I'd have to do is place my hand…what the hell? I'm thinking like a Wraith. Well this can't be good.'_

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'_Wandering empty halls, watching dirty walls, waiting for life to come to it's end. Torrela could feel the power emanating from the walls all around the body of Doctor McKay, she knew that she was failing in this body and that she couldn't stay in this place for much longer but she allowed the beautiful feeling of the power of this place to wash over her. _

"_What's that?" came the a startled voice from in front of her, Rodney McKay was pacing around the white hall in which they were both now imprisoned. _

"_This place is a great source of power," Torrela began with her eyes closed, "the power that emanates from here can be used in many forms. It is…spectacular." _

"_Yeah." Rodney said distantly, he too was distracted by the strength of the power coming from the building._

"_Your friends are frustrated." _

"_Yes, I know. But why?" Rodney's voice once again trailed off into silence, the two people stood in the middle of this white hall their eyes closed._

"_McKay!" Rodney's eyes twitched but he didn't open them, it must be a trick of his mind or Torrela trying to gain control again. _

"_McKay!" Rodney moved his arm towards his face and made as though to swat something away. Why was she making Sheppard's voice float across the hall? Didn't she know that that was definitely not on!_

"_McKay, wake up you lazy son of a bitch. I am not gunna wait around here all day for you to wake up." There was a pause before suddenlytherecome another shout"Come on sleeping beauty." Rodney's breathing hitched for a second. That definitely sounded like Sheppard, it couldn't be? How could Sheppard get through to him here? With a deep breath he opened his eyes._

XXXXXXXXX

"Well at last. Take your time McKay, we have all day." The sarcasm was ruined slightly by the fact that John was grinning from ear to ear, as he saw his friend blink and open his eyes.

Rodney shook his head slightly as though trying to clear it, before he attempted to sit up and failed miserably.

"Easy lad, you've had one hell of a time. You should just rest here for a wee while."

"Oh the amazing teachings of the man who practises Voodoo in his spare time. Got any more tipsfor meVoodoo Witch doctor?" Carson tried to look annoyed and stern but he just couldn't manage it, he was just so happy that Rodney was awake and himself again!

Suddenly Rodney lifted a hand to the back of his head, he passed it gingerly over his hair and down his neck before he pulled it back and looked intently at his hand. There was nothing on there, he could feel the eyes of the whole group upon him and he quickly let his arm fall to his side. He began to sit up, slower this time and he managed to get up without a wave of nausea hitting him.

"Where are we?" he asked as he looked around at the dark room they were in, it was rather small and had a high ceiling. A single dusty light hung down from the panelled roof, it didn't give off much light but Rodney could still make out a figure that he didn't recognise. He squinted through the semi-darkness towards the figure; John seemed to follow his gaze.

"Oh we're in that weird complex place," he began, "We met a new guy on the way." He jabbed his thumb at the new comer, Rodney nodded absently his head was beginning to hurt and he could feel Torrela stirring at the back of his mind.

"So what do we do now?" he asked, looking hopefully up at all the faces around him.

"Uh, we were hoping you would know. We have had no such luck so far." Came a nervous voice from Radek Zelenka, he was towards the front of the group along with another scientist.

"Oh so I have to do everything around here. Even though I'm injured, I'm still called upon to do everything thing." Rodney sighed and put his head in his hands to try and clear his head and think of a plan.

"McKay?" Rodney looked up at Sheppard's anxious, worried yet determined face and saw the urgency in there as well. "We need to go, that 'thing' inside you is still there and we need to get her out!"

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Sheppard offered Rodney a hand and they both stood carefully, each looking a bit worse for ware.

"So we off again?" asked Carson as he studied his two future patients carefully, they were going to be spending a lot of time in the infirmary when they got back but he would delay the pleasure of telling them that until later. Now just wasn't the right time.

* * *

So sorry about the delay! I will definately try to get the next chapter up either tonight or tomorrow! I promise! 

Hope this chapters okay, cya all soon.


	19. Plan Time

As Rodney walked down these oh so familiar corridors he felt like he was in a dream, a terrible nightmare that he couldn't wake up from. The only thing that told him that this wasn't a dream was the steady, throbbing pain that was coursing all across his body.

"We are here." Came the stranger's voice from up the front of the group, Rodney hadn't thought to ask his name.

"Okay, well how do we open it?" Came John's annoyed voice from somewhere in front, it was hard to see through the gloom even with three flashlights on.

"I do not know…But I will try." This last bit of speech came out so fast that Rodney was sure that the Major had started forwards looking threatening.

"So what do we do whilst we wait?" asked a young Lieutenant just behind Rodney, he seemed a bit jumpy which worried Rodney because he thought all Lieutenant's and marines were supposed to be, well, hard to worry or frighten.

"Why don't we just stand in silence?" Sheppard snapped, Rodney stared at the dim outline of John his eyebrows becoming lost in his hair. John had never really snapped at someone before, and definitely not a young Lieutenant who had probably never been on a mission off-world before.

"Okay, why don't we all jus' calm down." Carson had stepped into the defence of the young man; he was watching John with a worried look on his face.

"Whatever." John turned back to the blank bit of wall in front of him and began to mutter darkly.

"It's done!" came a slightly startled statement from the blank stretch of wall in front of them, the soldiers moved forwards as one and took up positions as a large door shaped piece of wall practically melted away.

"Whoa! Nice!"

"Oh god, why do you soldiers always have to be so impressed by something that is so scientifically simple… whoa!" Rodney couldn't help but let out an exclamation as he entered the new room through the melted wall. It was huge; with a variety of strange instruments all stacked haphazardly on tables, and the noise that they were making was incredible!

The lights from the soldier's P-90s were shining swiftly around the room, before they began to rest on the different machines, lighting up different pieces of their equipment.

"What are these?" John asked to no one in particular, but Rodney guessed it was directed more closely at the new guy.

"I do not know." He replied blankly, as he too stared around apparently awestruck at the cavernous room. Rodney immediately didn't trust him, it was something about the tone of his voice, as though he was waiting for something planned to happen any minute.

Suddenly lights flickered on all around them, all of them screwed up their eyes from the sudden intense light that was blinding them. When Rodney finally managed to open his eyes again he saw at least twenty people all dressed in plain brownuniforms standing all around the room and pointing strange weapons at the group.

'_Oh great.'_ Rodney thought as he watched someone walk forwards towards them, someone with a definite feminine walk and shoulder length hair._ 'Just great.'_

She stopped in front of them and smiled, Rodney could feel Torrela stir at the back of his mind and he could hear the quiet hiss that she made as Rodney's eyes focused on the woman in front of them.

"Doctor McKay, how nice of you to join us again!" She said still smiling, her tone one of great joy as she glanced around at her other captives all of whom were still squinting against the light.

"Yes, well I wasn't exactly able to voice my objections to coming back."

"McKay are you gunna introduce us to your friend? Or are you gunna stand there all day and exchange sarcastic remarks?" Rodney glared at John, who like the others was still squinting, but Rodney had no idea why, the light wasn't nearly as bright as it had been a moment ago.

"Oh yes please do introduce us Doctor McKay." The woman said in a horrible silky voice, as her smile widened "I'm simply dying to meet my captives."

Rodney glared at her, the only thing stopping him attacking her was the little voice of reason at the back of his mind going _'They've all got big guns, you have none. Don't be an IDIOT McKay. Big guns! Very big guns!'_

But before Rodney could respond with either a sarcastic remark or with the introductions a voice piped up from the group, and they all turned in unison to see who it was.

"I brought them here my lady, I did it! No one else would risk it, not after the last incident but I did! I went out and found them, bringing the hapless idiot in here, and I made sure they found the writings! You promised a reward, my lady. You promised."

"You!" Rodney stared horror-struck as John lunged forwards towards the stranger and grabbed him by the throat, he felt the three other soldiers move towards their CO to try and prise him off the traitor but they never managed it. Seconds after John had grabbed the man's throat; he had been hit by a blast from one of the weapons and fell to the floor with a crash.

"SIR!" came a startled cry from Lieutenant Ford, as suddenly the young soldier that had beena bit too jumpy earlier began to fire blindly into the crowd of uniformed officers surrounding them.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Rodney yelled at him, but it was too late the young Lieutenant was hit by weapons fire and fell to the ground his eyes glazed over.

"Oh my god." Rodney heard Carson say before a second blast hit the doctor in the chest, he too hit the floor hard and didn't rise.

Major Lorne and Lieutenant Ford raised their P-90s defensively, they knew that they were no match for the twenty-or-so guards whom surrounded them but it made them feel better to have some form of weaponry to fight with.

"Lower your weapons, and no one else need get hurt." The woman said slowly eyeing the guns in the two soldier's hands.

"Oh yeah! Like that's gunna happen. You just killed an unarmed doctor! Excuse me if I don't believe you when you say we'll be unharmed if we drop these." Major Lorne replied steadily, and Rodney could tell why Major Sheppard had picked him for this mission. He was calm under pressure, and he had a good load of sarcastic remarks tucked away in that military brain of his.

The woman laughed loudly, and signalled to one of the guards who moved threateningly towards Zelenka and Volga, Rodney saw Lorne's eyes flick swiftly towards the two scientists before settling back on the woman in front of them.

Lieutenant Ford had one eye on Major Lorne and one eye on the two scientists, who were slowly and cautiously drawing closer to the two marines for safety.

"Don't make this any harder on yourselves." The woman said softly, as the guard took another step towards Zelenka and Volga, as his face passed by a light held by one of the guards Rodney recognised him as one of the goons who had held him last time he was here, his eyes narrowed slightly before snapping back onto the brown haired woman now watching them all closely.

'_Doctor McKay, listen to me please. I know this is out of character but I am willing to help you if you listen to me.'_ Rodney almost jumped as Torrela's voice drifted through his mind; he managed to control his small gesture and responded as quickly as he dared.

'_Okay what?'_

'_That woman in front of you, is not me…'_

'_Okay, well gee that's a lot of help. I will definitely phone you when we need some help in a pub quiz!'_

'_Doctor McKay, SHUT UP, please…thank you. Now as I was saying, that woman in front of you is not me. She is an impostor, and very much like what I have done here to you, she has invaded my mind and body. Now I have a plan which will benefit us both if you just listen to me, and do as I say.'_

'_Oh sure, I'll listen to the virus that has so far taken over my mind, my body and tried to kill me. What could possibly go wrong with trusting that person?'_

'_Now I see why so many people find you tiresome and annoying. But please just listen to this plan, and please you must act upon it. It will save your friends, and it will save my people!'_

'_My friends are lying on the floor around me dead! How can it help them?'_

'_It will, I promise!'_

* * *

Slight cliffhanger there, lol sorry about the lastness of this chapter. Next one will come up soon. 


	20. Impostor

"Look lady, I seriously doubt you're gunna let us skip off home if we drop these weapons." Lorne said, his temper was rising but he wasn't about to let everybody know that she was pushing his buttons.

"Oh, no I have no intention of letting you…what was the phrase… 'Skip off home' if you drop the weapons. I am just simply saying that you have the chance to save the rest of your fellow trespassers by putting them down."

"Major."

"Oh so if we just put these down you'll just simply…"

"Major!"

"WHAT?" Lorne instantly regretted shouting as he saw it was Doctor McKay who was speaking, he knew that the scientist was still 'fragile' from his virus experience but he just couldn't help his anger finally surfacing.

"Do as she says."

"What?" He repeated, but quieter this time. He was watching McKay with a look of curiosity and suspicion, if McKay wanted them to do as an alien said so then something **had** to be wrong.

"I said do as she says, Major." McKay was looking directly at him, as though he was trying to tell him something without using speech. But even though his suspicions were aroused he trusted McKay, even though he would never admit it to his face.

"Okay, Lieutenant lower your weapon." Ford looked quickly at Major Lorne before he obligingly lowered his weapon and pointed it at the floor.

"Now you will…" The woman began but McKay cut her off before she could continue into the horror that undoubtedly awaited them.

"I don't think they'll be doing anything else." The woman turned to stare dumbfounded at McKay, as did his fellow teammates who were still conscious and breathing.

"You're going to let them go." McKay said decisively, and Lorne noticed that McKay wasn't acting like McKay at all. He was acting differently somehow, almost feminine. His hand was on his hip, and he was watching the woman in front of them with a cool, unflinching gaze.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, I told you to let them go. You can have me, and I'll help you with what you want to do but you have to let them go." Lorne felt sure he had heard wrong, Rodney McKay was putting his butt on the line to help them out. This was practically unheard of, unless of course it was his team on the line.

"Such a brilliant offer but I'd prefer to have something else to bargain with."

"Look, Torrela. I am not going to say this more than once so listen closely. Let them go, and I will fix whatever you need fixed and I will help you in all your scientific needs."

"McKay, what the hell are you doing?" Lorne's surprise at McKay's sudden willingness to save their necks turned slowly to horror as he watched the woman's face turn from surprised to delighted.

"I know what I'm doing Major, and if this is the only thing that can get us…you out of here then it's going to have to be the only option." Lorne hadn't missed the quick slip-up McKay had made, he had a plan and that was all that mattered. As long as they were all going to get out of this alive, but then his stomach did a strange kind of flop as he realised that three of the group were gone. His eyes strayed across to the bodies of Major Sheppard, Lieutenant Trawling and Doctor Beckett still lying on the ground.

"Very well Doctor McKay." The woman said, as an evil grin passed across her face, at the very thought of having this scientist to fix every problem in her complex. "Your friends may leave. On the condition that you work for us until the end of your days."

"Very well." He said and he raised his hand towards her, she took his hand and they shook on it. The deal was sealed.

"Let them pass." The woman said to the guards on the side of the door, they stepped aside immediately leaving a gap where the group could leave.

"Lieutenant, let's get the rest of our team out of here." Lorne said as he walked swiftly to where Major Sheppard lay and picked him up, then he turned to steal a quick glance at McKay before he walked back towards where the two scientists were dragging Doctor Beckett out of the door and Lieutenant Ford was pulling Lieutenant Trawling after them. He turned back as he too reached the doorway, he saw McKay watching him. Major Lorne nodded to the scientist to show him that he now had earned his respect. McKay just nodded back and made a motion as though to shoo Lorne out, so with a last look around the hall he turned and hurried from the room carrying the Major carefully back down the dark hallway.

XXXXXXXXX

' "_Fancy letting me in on your little suicide mission here?" Rodney yelled, he was no longer in a White Hall, for which he was greatly relieved, but now he was in a strange house. It was an odd Tudor House, with the brickwork showing on the inside and quant furniture placed strategically in the large living area._

_When no one answered Rodney sighed and flopped down onto a comfy sofa near him, he hadn't expected an answer but he had at least thought she might let him see what was going on, now that he had so kindly let her use his body for this stupid mission. He didn't see why she had to get rid of this 'impostor' in her body, when she was doing exactly the same thing in his._

"_You could at least have given me a T.V." he sighed, this house might be nice but it didn't have any of his usual luxuries, such as a television, a fridge stocked with beer or a paediatric bed._

_He gave another sigh and stood up, he needed to move around. He couldn't just sit here any longer; he wanted to find out what was happening. Maybe he could hide in the background somewhere; she'd done it to him so he should be able to do it with her._

_He concentrated hard, and soon the room around him began to dissolve. Now he could see as through his own eyes, but he could still feel Torrela in control._

'_God, this is weird!' he thought as he watched the woman in front of him turn and walk away towards the shadows._

XXXXXXXXX

"You will follow." Came a gruff voice from one of the soldiers beside Torrela, she smiled and nodded.

"Naturally." She replied and followed the woman at a swift trot, before long she was right behind her, close enough to attack her, but she restrained that impulse it was too soon for that!

"Here." Torrela stopped quickly as they reached a new door; she stared at it through Rodney's eyes and started to worry about her plan.

'_This might not go down too well.'_ She thought, she watched as the impostor reached forward and touched the door, which promptly melted away.

'_She has the ancient gene?'_ came the voice of Doctor McKay from the shadows of her mind; she ignored him and walked slowly into the new room.

It was very similar to the other rooms in the base; it had a high ceiling, black floors and strange instruments that were making strange sounds.

"What are we doing here?"

"I would have imagined you would have wanted to make sure we kept our word, about your friends being allowed to leave." She replied coolly, as she motioned towards a machine, which buzzed into life, and a picture appeared on the screen. She found it very hard to contain Rodney's sudden burst of _'that is so cool!' _but she managed to in the end with only the smallest exclamation.

"Impressive isn't it?"

"Oh yeah, amazing." Torrela said sarcastically, that was her technology that this impostor was messing with and she wasn't just going to lie down and take it. Suddenly the picture began to focus and figures appeared on the screen, she recognised the small form of Doctor Zelenka pulling Doctor Beckett along the ground in front of the complex, then came Doctor Volga who was shaking so badly it looked as if she had completely given up holding Beckett, and bringing up the rear were the two soldiers first came Major Lorne dragging Major Sheppard and Lieutenant Ford followed keeping his gun raised ready for any attack but also trying to drag the form of Lieutenant Trawling behind him.

"Now you have seen your friends are safe, maybe we can get down to business."

"Oh yes, lets." Torrela said with mock enthusiasm,

"Firstly you will help us finish what our ancestors have started. You will help our scientists to create the virus for which our people built this laboratory, and you will unleash it's power on the city of Atlantis."

"Oh goody." All the guards around her were exchanging amused looks, before the impostor threw a scathing look towards them and their faces turned back to stone masks.

"Follow me."

XXXXXXXXX

"Sir don't we need to return to Atlantis?"

"Yes Lieutenant, but McKay has a plan and I don't want to be on the receiving end of one of Major Sheppard's rants about not leaving McKay in the hands of dangerous aliens. Last time someone did that, they were forced to scrub out the entire east pier!"

"But Sir, the Major's…"

"I don't think so Lieutenant."

Doctor Zelenka was listening half-heartedly to the conversation behind him, he was still in shock from the near death experience but adrenalin was still pumping through his blood. His head turned as he heard Major Lorne's last sentence, he almost dropped Carson as he turned to the two soldiers behind him.

"What do you mean, they are not dead! We saw them die, we saw them get shot and now you trying to make out that everything is fine. We just lost valuable people!" He could see Major Lorne's eyes widen in shock, but he didn't care anymore. He had tried so hard to not let his anger or frustration escape him, but this had been too much, he had lost two friends by death and one friend was now in the service of aliens.

"Doc, calm down!" came the shocked voice of Lieutenant Ford who had moved forwards towards the small, terrifying doctor.

"No, I will not Lieutenant. Three of my friends are gone, two never returning. Tell me howIcalm down?"

"Doc, look I know that back there it looked like they were shot but believe me I know when I've seen a stunner and when I've seen a real gun. They're stunned! Probably until we reach the gate, you haven't lost anyone!" Radek's eyes focused on Major Lorne's and in that split second that they made eye contact, he instantly knew that this was true. He looked swiftly down at the ground in embarrassment, Doctor Volga come up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay," Major Lorne said shakily, it seemed he was still trying to get over the fact that Radek had shouted at them. "well I say we get back to the gate and tell Doctor Weir what's happened and get her to send a Jumper through, we'll send these guys back for treatment and then the rest of us will rescue McKay. That sound good?" He looked hardest at Radek who after a few moments hesitation nodded, and they once again started towards the gate.

XXXXXXXXX

'_You're going to do WHAT!'_

'_Look Doctor McKay, it is the only way to ensure that the impostor is destroyed. An EMP will be more than enough to destroy it.'_

'_But don't you think it's a bit, you know, STUPID!'_

'_It is only dangerous if we get caught.'_

'_Oh and of course we're both the masters of disguise. Well I'm sorry but I don't think it can be done.'_

'_Doctor McKay, I need you to help me! Please!'_

'_Torrela are you begging? Well I suppose my intellect does outstrip your own, but…okay fine I'll help. But only if you promise to leave my body afterwards!'_

'_Deal.'_

'_Okay then, let's get this done.'_

* * *

_Not long now, i promise. Hope this chapter's okay, next chapter will be up soon._

_Thanks again to all who have reviewed i love reading them, and please if you spot mistakes do point them out, it helps me learn what to not do next time._

_Thanks_


	21. Explosion

Thanks again for all reviews made about this story, this is the last chapter of this stoy. I hope you all enjoy it, it does have whumping in it :P

I have encluded the word Wingdangdoodle but don't ask about that, it was the first word that came into my head. :P

* * *

"Okay where do I start?" Torrela said enthusiastically, she needed to get started on her plan to destroy this impostor once and for all.

"You will stay here, in sight of all the guards in this area. You will not escape again." The guard who had spoken moved back to his position by the door to the unending corridors and watched her carefully, Torrela turned to her table and found several vials and a strange variety of other instruments lined up on it.

"WHERE'S MY REWARD? I WANT MY REWARD!" she turned quickly to see Theseus being dragged into the lab, he was kicking and screaming but the guards who were clutching his upper arms were taking no notice of him at all. He was dragged into a small room just off the lab and the screaming stopped abruptly, a bright white light shone through the door before it all went dark again.

'_Oh great.'_ Came the timid voice of McKay but she once again ignored it and set to work.

XXXXXXXXX

"Major do you hear that?" Lieutenant Ford whispered as they made their way back from the gate. They had just sent the three stunned personnel back through the gate accompanied by a reluctant Doctor Zelenka and Doctor Volga and were now expecting a Jumper to be sent any time soon.

"Hear what?" Major Lorne asked as he stopped in the forest, listening intently for any sound. Suddenly there was a rustling from the bushes in front of them; they both raised their P-90s at the bush. Suddenly another bush to their right rustled and they turned their guns on that.

"We need to get back to the gate." Major Lorne whispered, and they both moved quickly and quietly towards the edge of the forest and back towards the towering gate. As they walked backwards more bushes began to rustle and they saw a foot emerge from one of them, at this they both began to run as fast as they could back to the gate. Doctor Weir had told them that they must not attack the natives until the Jumper arrived, so they for once heeded her advice and ran for it.

XXXXXXXXX

Torrela looked swiftly around her towards the other scientists in the room, Rodney had used them last time to create a diversion in order for him to escape and maybe she could do the same.

She began to walk purposefully towards them, but a rather large guard stepped in front of her blocking her path.

"I need to borrow something."

"What do you need?"

"Umm…" 

'_Just say a word. Anything. Oh for heavens sake, umm wingdangdoodle.'_

"I need a wingdangdoodle."

"A what?"

"It's a device which measures the temperature of a substance and also measures the amount of acid or alkali needed." The guard looked stunned for a moment before letting her pass, she walked towards the scientists. One of them stuck out like a sore thumb so she walked towards him, he didn't look up from his work until she began to whisper to him.

"Any chance you can create another diversion?" the man turned to look at her, his face giving nothing away. He looked into her eyes before he sighed and nodded once, he pointed towards a piece of equipment on his desk and she picked it up looking confused.

"For your excuse." He whispered before he turned back to his work, Torrela smiled and walked back towards her desk she knew it would be long before the diversion would happen and she could steal away towards the control tower.

Ten minutes later the diversion happened, a fairly large explosion was set off which made chairs and desks fly towards the walls, she barely had time to duck in order to miss a rather large piece of desk, which flew towards her.

The guards were in uproar, three of their number had been knocked out by particularly large pieces of wood, four of them were now walking towards the injured scientists which left only three. Picking up the solution she had been working on carefully, she moved towards the three remaining guards they all moved together and raised their weapons.

"Sorry." She said as she threw the solution over the three of them and they began to yell in agony, before any more guards to reach her she ran out of them room and down the corridor.

"Next left, third right." She muttered as she tore down the corridors, finally she reached the control room and entered carefully. There were five guards in there all pacing up and down; this would have to be a timed approach.

Moving forwards into the shadow of a large console she watched two of the guards move towards her, she counted to ten before she struck sending both guards flying across the room, she ran towards them and picked up one of the dropped guns that now lay on the floor. She aimed this at the remaining guards and fired in quick succession; if it hadn't been for McKay's firearms training she wouldn't have been able to hit all her targets.

As the guard fell to the ground she moved towards another console in the room, making sure that the guards were no longer in possession of weapons as she went. Soon she had all the guns in a pile next to her and she began to click away on the console, shutting off lights in most areas of the complex. After she had darkened the area she pulled up a new screen, this screen had the title 'self destruct sequence'. She smiled as she quickly typed in her code and set the timer to 15 minutes, long enough for her to get out of the complex alive she hoped. She turned to leave the room but a blow hit the side of her face so hard that she was knocked backwards, she flew into the wall and fell to the ground as stars exploded in front of her eyes.

"You should not have left Doctor McKay."

"Thought you would have guessed that I'm not McKay by now. But then again some people are just born stupid." She replied as she unsteadily raised herself to her feet, the stars were fading from her vision and she could now see the impostor standing in front of her a look of shock and outrage on her face. Torrela lunged at the impostor, but she had never fought in McKay's body and she doubted that he had either, but still she attacked, managing to draw blood.

"You should have left long ago!" screamed the impostor as she threw Torrela off her, and stood sweeping away the blood from her face and smiling as the skin regenerated. Torrela stared horror struck, she could tell that several of McKay's ribs were broken and his body was becoming tired. There was no choice, if she stayed in this body any longer it would die and she would never be able to do this. The only way to survive was to once more take possession of her body, even if it would be a fight. With a massive effort she forced herself off the floor and ran at the impostor her hand outstretched, the impostor grabbed her hand and began to twist it but the damage was done she closed her eyes and felt the familiar sensation as she switched bodies.

XXXXXXXXX

Rodney opened his eyes and found them staring at a black ceiling, all around him strange lights were flickering. He raised his head slowly and looked around, on the floor were the bodies of five guards lying scattered on the ground and a small pile of guns were piled next to him. He began to stand and felt a shooting pain in his ribs, he guessed that some of them were broken and his head was spinning slightly.

'_Great I have concussion and broken ribs, and most probably my sugar level has dropped oh just great!'_ he thought as he gingerly got to his feet and leant on a console. It was then that he noticed a screen with some very familiar numbers on it; he stared at it for a moment before it began to sink it. She had set a self-destruct and it was already down to 8 minutes, he gulped and stared down at the console but he was in no position to try and tamper with this now he had to get out.

He turned towards the door and walked as quickly as he could towards it, as he reached it he turned back for one more look inside and saw another body lying to his left. It was the body of a woman, the woman who had held him and the woman who had made his life a living hell for the past few days. He looked at her for a moment before he turned and moved down the corridor towards what he hoped was the exit, he could hear the distance sounds of people running behind him and he tried his hardest to get his feet to run.

'_Carson will look at this when I get back, it'll all be over soon. All be over soon' _he thought over and over again, until he reached a piece of the complex that he recognised, it was the place where he had been held and he just needed to run on a little further and then he would be able to get out of this place before it blew.

5 minutes to go.

Rodney ran until suddenly the bright, white light engulfed him and he reappeared outside the complex, he shook his head to try and clear it before he ran quickly towards the forest and safety. The night sky of this planet was full of stars and new constellations but Rodney had no time to try and look at them, he could feel his broken ribs complaining heartedly against this much strain but he ignored them, he had to get to the gate. Seconds later he reached the forest and had to lean against a tree to get his breath back, he knew instantly that he shouldn't have stopped, his ribs began to hurt so badly that he fell to his knees and let out a yell of pain. He didn't even notice a sudden blast of white light from behind him; he just fell onto his front in the forest.

"AH HA." Came a triumphant voice from behind him, but he could move, he felt oddly detached from his body and knew that his blood sugar levels were dropping towards danger point.

"Your friend Torrela, couldn't get the better of me," the voice continued, and he felt strong hands picking him up from the floor "so I got the better of her!" the hands suddenly slammed him against a tree.

"And now Doctor McKay, you have broken our agreement! You said you would work for me for the rest of your days! But then again judging by the way you look now it won't be long before you die anyway." Rodney opened his eyes carefully and saw Torrela's impostor glaring at him, he groaned slightly before a coughing fit began. The woman dropped him on the ground in disgust, but the coughing continued and Rodney could taste the blood in his mouth. Finally it subsided and he managed to breathe again, he raised his hand to wipe away the blood from his mouth and saw his watch his eyes widened in shock. They had two minutes before the complex blew up; this was very bad especially if this woman was going to make it difficult for him to leave.

He raised himself shakily to his feet, and tried to walk off into the forest but the woman behind him screamed in rage and grabbed him once more. This time Rodney fought back, he threw a magnificent punch, which missed by centimetres, and the woman laughed.

"Let me go, we need to get out of here it's going to blow!" he whispered, but she didn't seem to hear him instead she threw him from her and he collided with another tree.

"Now Doctor McKay, I shall kill you once and for all." She cried happily, Rodney knew that if he wanted to live he needed to run. He gathered his remaining strength, picked himself up from the ground and began to run away, he looked briefly down at his watch and saw the seconds ticking by:

5

4

3

He tried to run faster but his broken ribs were causing him too much pain, even with the help of adrenalin he wouldn't be able to go any faster or keep going for much longer.

2

1

0

Rodney could hear the first signs of the explosion roar through the building, he could see the trees in front of him being lit from the fire behind him. Suddenly he was thrown once more from his feet and hurled about 10 feet, he fell on his stomach as the shockwave passed over the forest and beyond. As Rodney hit the ground everything went black, and he knew that this was the end.

XXXXXXXXX

The Atlantis Jumper had arrived through the gate about 5 minutes ago and had been circulating the planet, until a huge explosion from the complex had sent one hell of a shockwave over the planet and had made the equipment in the Jumper go haywire.

They were plummeting towards the ground at a tremendous velocity before suddenly the controls began to respond once more, the pilot grabbed the sticks and pulled the Jumper up from it's nose dive.

"What the hell was that?" Major Lorne asked from the back seat, he watched Lieutenant Ford and the pilot checking the equipment,

"I believe that was the complex, Sir." The pilot said swiftly, as something popped up on the HUD.

"Yes the complex just exploded." Lieutenant Ford said, he was smiling for a moment before he suddenly realised that McKay might have been in there, his smile faded instantly and he motioned for the pilot to take them down.

When they had reached the ground both Major Lorne and Lieutenant Ford hurried out of the Jumper, they didn't know if the natives who had been around earlier were still around or even alive but they weren't going to take any chances.

They entered the forest near the complex quickly and quietly, and began to walk towards the destroyed building. Lieutenant Ford was walking quickly in front, his eyes scanning the surrounding forest for any sign of life. Major Lorne was behind him doing the same but also scanning the ground for any bodies, well one body in particular.

"SIR!" Major Lorne ran towards Ford who had stopped by a tree, as he reached the young man he looked down and saw Doctor McKay's body lying face down on the ground. His heart skipped a beat, but he knew what he had to do and picked the scientist up carefully. He saw Ford looking at him, but he ignored him they had to get back now!

"We've got him." Lieutenant Ford said over the radio,

"_Okay, we'll keep the motor running." _

After about three minutes they reached the Jumper and hurried aboard, Lorne put Rodney carefully on one of the backbenches and let one of the marines watch him. He moved towards the front of the Jumper and sat down.

"Get us back to Atlantis now!" he said, and watched as the view changed as they rose and then the gate came into view. They were going home, at last!

XXXXXXXXX

Two weeks later.

Rodney's eyelids were heavy, and he didn't want to open them ever again but he could hear someone beside him snoring and it was annoying him. Slowly he opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of a sleeping Major Sheppard, he was sat on a chair with his mouth open.

Rodney rolled his eyes at the sight, before he turned his gaze to the rest of the room. He soon realised that he was in the infirmary and he cautiously began to sit up in bed, as he did so he felt a strange pull on his arm and looked around. An IV drip was positioned next to his bed. So Carson had him drugged up to the eyeballs, always a good sign.

As he sat up he saw that his was the only bed that was occupied, that was different! Normally there were about ten soldiers in here complaining about gunshot wounds, or pulled muscles.

As he sat there he heard someone bustling about in Carson's office and sure enough about a second later the mother hen himself came out and spotted Rodney, he came bustling towards him.

"And what are ye doing up? Ye should be resting lad!"

"Not my fault if your voodoo medicines don't work." He replied, throwing a look at Major Sheppard who was still snoring loudly.

"Ah, I see." Carson said and he moved quickly towards Major Sheppard and prodded him awake, John looked around for a moment before seeing Rodney was awake.

"Ah sleeping beauty's awake." He said smiling,

"Only because of your tremendous snoring!" Rodney said grumpily, now he was awake he really wanted to go back to sleep.

"I don't snore!" John said indignantly, as he straightened in his chair. Carson rolled his eyes as he listened to the two bicker like an old married couple. He moved around to Rodney's IV and put a clear substance in it, before he moved back to the front of Rodney's bed and glaring at him.

"Sleep now!" he said sternly, Rodney grimaced but wriggled down into the covers. Carson walked back to his office, and when his back was turned Rodney stuck his tongue out.

"That's not very nice McKay!" John whispered as he suppressed a laugh at his friend's infantile behaviour.

"You're not the one whose stuck in here because of broken ribs…" but John never heard what else his friend was complaining of, because Rodney fell asleep and began to snore.

"See you snore. I don't!" he whispered, as he too settled down ready for a nice little nap before Rodney woke up again.

Soon the infirmary was filled with the sound of snoring and Carson smiled in his office as he completed his paperwork. Everything was going to be fine.

* * *

Hope you've all enjoyed this, and i hope that i'll be able to make a new story soon.

Thanks for all the reviews and for all the support i've had.

Thanks again.


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